Tale Of A Roman Goddess
by Untamed Roses
Summary: Maximum Ride is a warrior goddess in the world of Ancient Rome. With sword and shield, she fights in the Arena. But even such a hard spirit can be broken. The prince, Fang, appears and woos her heart away from the blood and gore. Here, a warrior is reborn. Roman Fax!
1. I Become A Warrior

**Disclaimer: Alright, I am disclaiming right now. POOF! It had been disclaimed. **

**Okay, everyone, this is the Roman story I was talknig about earlier in All I Want Is You, Fang. It took a while to actually get the story itself out so it would make sense. It came to me in bits and pieces. Now I have it. Now here it is. Please enjoy! **

Max POV:

I can smell the iron in the blood. I can the tremble of my sword. And, now under the helmet, I can see the eyes of my opponent. They feeded for one thing. To have my blood wrapped all over that blade.

I take my sword to my side and step forward. My opponent does the same, but quickly begins to charge. The sight of his muscles tense under the lack of armor, his bare chest clenching at the sight of me makes me realize something. He was afraid. He was afraid of me. If there is one thing I've learned in the Arena is that you should never show fear. That is only an opening for death.

My opponent allows a fierce battle cry before jumping high above, with sword down, like a beast.

"I will cut you down!" I hear him whisper.

_Clank!_

But my reflexes kicked in before then. "I think not." I push my opponent back, a man, back with only my sword blade. The large body slams onto the Arena ground and stops. But he is not dead. Only stunned. With this mind, I walk over with my sword ready. His eyes look up into the bright midafternoon sky until I block his veiw. That's when I finally see th fear in his eyes. And the tremble of his arm. A grown man, trembling in my wake. I raise my sword over my head, allow it to reflect some of the sun's rays, and bring it down like a a champion archer's arrow. Sharp and straight.

It hits right between the eyes. Now I can really smell the blood. After I yank my sword from its new settlement I hear the screams and cheers bounce around the Arena. Half naked men and fully dressed woman alike. Now I just open my arms out wide and allow them to feel my power. Feel and respect it. They become louder. After taking a last look at the crowd, I look to the special Box. A place reserved only for the king, queen, and prince. A princess as never breeded into this world. First, I look to the king. Old with gray hairs and facial wrinkles. Next, I look to the queen. Flawless skin and radiating beauty. Much too young for the king. And lastly, I look to the prince. Long black hair lays ever so perfectly on his shoulders. And dark eyes fall on me. Wait-! Only on me?!

I look back at his gaze in stone, while my heart beats quickly. Why is it that everytime I look at him my heart begins to beat uncontrollably? We just stare at each other for what feels like forever. At least, until the king raises his hand to silence the crowd. I struggle to look away from his son so I can give him my attetion.

"Maximum Ride." I straighten up. "You are the undefeated. A champion among all. No one has managed to knock down. None can surpass you." God, we get the picture. I'm great! Would he hurry up? "You are hereby given the title of Roman Warrior, Maximum Ride!" Suddenly the crowd roars all over again.

I stare in awe at the king. Did he just make me a warrior? Was I hearing things? No. I heard him right. He promoted me. Oh my god. When the king sits down to look at his people I look to the ground. Not in shame, of course, but in shock. Wow! A warrior. That is the highest rank in the Roman forces. Now I can be in the army. Now I can-

"Rain!" I look up once again and see the gray clouds show up. Funny how I didn't notice that earlier. "It's raining!" The first drops come and I open my arms again. It's not long before the heavy rains come and start to drench everything and everyone in the stands. It has been a long time since the gods have blessed us with their tears of joy. This was a wonderful day indeed. For a long time, I just stand there and let the rain fall over my body and face.

"Hey!" Then that voice broke through. I look forward and guess who I see? "I think it'd be smart to go to the barracks. You might catch a cold." I let a smile come and it seems this catches him off guard. Wow. The prince is gorgeous when he's surprised too.

"What about you?"

"I'm fine!" He points to the roof over the Box. "I have shelter!" I drop my sword and smile even more involuntarily. Now my heart was going again. Oh no.

I begin to walk toward the exit but now without getting a final glimpsse at the prince's dark eyes. Ohhhh. What would I have to do to get with him?

I get to the barracks as soon as the rain begins to slow to a drizzle. The moment I take a step into my room I see Lissa. Firey red hair and all.

"What?" She looks at me through scrunched eyes. Sheesh, what was her problem? I mean, I just walked in.

"Nothing. I just walked in." I got to my bed and sit down.

"I heard you got promoted. I guess now you're going to start acting like you're better than the rest of us, huh?" I shake my head.

"No. That won't happen.'

"Well-" I look at her green eyes. "I would congratulate you, but I won't.' I look away from Lissa.

"Whatever. Do what you want. I'm going to get us some water." I take the empty water bucket we leave by the door and open the door. Okay, I didn't expect the rain to stop so soon. I was planning on having a little more "rain time". Either way, I had us some water anyway. I get to one of the fountains by the barracks and put the bucket down.

Alright, I'm pretty sure you migh tbe a little confused on things. So I'll start from the beginning. My name is Maximum Ride. But I'm mostly known among my allies as Max. I'm fifteen years old and I'm an orphan. When I was younger I lived in one of ten kingdom's small town. And when I say small, I mean small. At least, twenty people lived there. Yeah. Small. Anyway, I lived there until my parents died thanks to some crazy disease that showed up out of nowhere. After awhile, the rest of the town started to die off too thanks to this disease. I couldn't believe that. All of the death was just too much, so I left. For the kingdom itself. Back then, I didn't really know how to defend myself, so it was really hard with the animals that came. And somewhere along the way, I gave up. I remember I was feeling dizzy and then I passed out.

When I had woke up I was in a medic room at the heart of our kingdom. That's where the king lives. The doctors there had said I was going to die if I had stayed out any longer. It was the same sickness that plagued my home. They said I was lucky. Once I was better, I had taken my place as a female gladiator. Why? Because the people that had found me half-dead were gladiators that were out for training. I guess I wanted to make it up to them somehow. I'm not even sure anymore.

Ever since then, I've lived here in the heart of my kingdom as a gladiator. And well, I've lived with being one. I mean, I've adjusted with the lifestyle. It turns out gladiators are people that have nowhere else to go. Many were criminals and they chose this instead of going to jail. And from what I heard, being a gladiator is way better than going to the jail. This is what I've heard. So, I guess that's it. Wait, the gladiators live the barracks right next to the king's home. And, the ranks, I forgot to mention are...a long list. So, I'm just gonna name the best. A warrior. The highest. Now I can actually leave the life of being a gladiator and be in the Roman army. That's a big accomplishment. Okay, now I'm done for now.

I take the bucket from the fountain and look at the water for second.

"Hey." That was the best second I ever took. I look up and guess who I find in front of me?

"Your Majesty." He looked at and actually smiled. Oh my god! I felt a blush hit me really hard. This guy was so, so, so damn gorgeous! Ahhhhh! "What're you doing here?" Then he started laughing. Oh no. My hearts was going to burst through my chest. Literally. He sat down beside me and looked to the fountain.

"I just came out for a walk." Now he turned to me. His eyes just burned to me. "I was hoping to find you." I was so shocked, I nearly dropped the bucket. Oh my god! This guy was getting to me. Why was I so weak right now? Oh, this sucks!

"Wha- WHAT!?" His smile got bigger.

"It's true." He looked down to the fountain again. "I wanted to congratulate you for your promotion. I wanted to ask you to have dinner with me and my family tonight." Now I was positive that I was hearing things? The prince didn't just ask me to have dinner with him and his family. Did I?

"Your Ma-"

"Call me Fang. I want you to call me that." He looks at me all over again with a serious look.

"Alright Fang. You asked me to have dinner with you and your family, right?" He nodded. "Oh! Well,-"

"Please." The next move he did really di dalmost make my hearts come through my chest and splatter everywhere, Okay, that was a little close. He leaned really close. So close that I could actually feel him breathe on my nose. "I'd love it if you were there." I back away to look into his dark eyes.

"Okay." He backs away, once again looking to the fountain water.

"We share such a beautiful reflection."

"Wha-" I look down and notice our faces in the shivering water. We looked good? I thoguht we looked like, well, a messed up picture.

"I'll see you later, right? Maximum?" He had already gotten up.

"Max?" I looked up. "Call me Max." Fang nodded.

"Alright then, Max. I'll see you tonight." And then he left. Oh my- I picked up the bucket and held back a squeal. I'm having dinner with the prince. The prince! Yes! Today has really turned into something.

**This is all for the first chapter. Liked it? I really hope you did. I wanted to try something new and I hope you liked this. So, if you did, please reveiw and tell me what you think. And, if you want read my story on FictionPress and my others on here. Thank you!**


	2. Royal Dinner

**Discliamer: I hereby disclaim Maximum Ride. Here is it disclaimed. Okay, I'm done here.**

**Alright, I just want to say to say thanks to everyone that read my story and thanks to those that reviewed. Thank you! now, here's the next chapter.**

Max POV:

When I get back to the barracks I am beyond shocked. I am beyond...something. What am I feeling right now? Is this normal? I feel my heart beat a little faster, but not as much as when I was with the pri- Fang earlier. And I was a little shaky. That's it. I'm nervous. That shouldn't be surprising, I mean, I having dinner with the royal family. How often does a gladiator get that opprutunity? Allow me to say not very often.

I get to my room and sit the water bucket by the door. Lissa was sitting on her bed like before. I wonder if she even moved.

"Hi." she says. Her kind approach caught me off guard, so I quickly looked around for anything I could use just in case she decided to pounce on me. Lissa is kind of like the best when is comes to a surprise attack. And adding on the fact that she doesn't like me really makes me suspicious of her right now.

"Uh, hi." She watches me like a hawk while I sit down on my bed. Can you imagine someone watching you like that? It's very uncomfortable. "Do you want something?" Lissa shakes her head and smiles.

"No. It's just that you look so happy right now."

"Huh?"

"You do. What happened?" I look away from her and turn to the small little crevasse on my side of the room that I refer to as my closet.

"Nothing." There were only three pairs of clothes that sat in my closet. All were long dirty dresses. Man, I really need to clean these. How could I let mysef fall behind on this? I take all three from the space and spread them out over my bed. Okay, now I have to choose which one I'll wear. One was a dark blue with a real gold chain I won from a tournament battle, another was red with black steaks, and the last was a plain dirty white. This was going to be hard. Okay,I'm just going to get this out right now, I hate wearing dresses. I really do, but sometimes there are ceremonies that we gladiators are supposed to go to and well, I kind of care about what I look like when I go there. If it weren't for those things I would be walking around in my armor all the time. And some other things I would need to find the time to make.

"Well look at this. I don't think there's a ceremony tonight. What's the occasion?" Lissa comes beside me with this mischiveious grin on her face. "Hmm?" I let my hand trace the gold chain.

"There's something special going on tonight." She doesn't seem satisfied with my anwser.

"Yeah right, tell me what's going on tonight?" By this time, Lissa was laying beside me and admiring my clothes. I sigh.

"I'm going to have dinner with the royal family." The mix of emotions on Lissa's face mutiplied my nervousness by a thousand.

"You-you're having dinner with the royal family." I nod. "Well, good luck." She backs away and sits on her bed again.

"What do you mean 'good luck'? Huh?" And for a second, I thoguht nothing could bring my mood down. But Lissa doesn't anwser me. I get up and yank her shoulder,so she'll look at me. "What do you mean? Now anwser me!" Her green eyes search mine in anger.

"I said that because they're going to cut you loose." Now I was feeling shock. I was sure of it. My hand drops to my side and my mouth drops slightly.

"What?"

"Isn't it obvious? The royals would never let a gladiator into their home unless they were going to get rid of them. Duh? They're getting rid of you, Maxie."

"No!" I grab her shoulders again. "Fang asked me. He invited me personally. I was promoted." I get a confused look from her this time.

"Who's Fang?" Right. She didn't know the prince's name. None of the gladiators do. The king was very secretive with him.

"The prince. He asked me to come. That can't mean he did that to just-"

"Max." Lissa looks at me closely. "They are getting rid of you. Don't you know what happens when a gladiator goes to the royal family's home? They never come back here, because they were cut loose. I know you were promoted, but the king is going to get rid of you. I'm sorry." The words hit me like a tidal wave all over. Why would the king want to get rid of me? What did I do? If anything, I was the best gladiator they had. Where would I go? I'd be lost. Why would he-?

"Hey." I turn to Lissa. "Even with knowing that you're going to be gone, you're still going to the royals house. You can at least look presentable." She reaches under her bed and pull a box out. "You can wear this." Inside was a green silk dress. Although the dress was beautiful I was angered again.

"How could you?' She looked at my face. "How could you tell me something like that? You have a point. The few female gladiators that went there never came back, but who knows why they left. They might have just left on their terms. Did you expect me to stay back becasue of that?' She shakes her head.

"I just want you to realize what you're getting into. I mean, why else would they leave? It's not like they have anywhere to go if they leave." Again Lissa had a point. "You know what, just forget I even said anything. Here." She pushes the dress into my arms and lays down. "I didn't mean to ruin your good mood." I just stand there for a long time. She didn't mean to ruin my good mood?! Why the hell did she even say anything in the first place then?! God, she should've stayed quiet!

I turn away and look at the dress. Then I start to remove my armor. She has a point. Where could they have gone? Those gladiators. Where? Wait, Lissa was probabaly lying. When I'm dressed, I look at Lissa. She was obviously fake-sleep, but I decided to play along.

"Thank you." I open the door to the crisp air. How could the sun set so early? I pretty much next door to the royals house and come face to face with the guard.

"Who are you?" Normally, a large man like this wouldn't have scared me. I could easily take him down, but now, thanks to Lissa, I was nervous.

"My name is Maximum Ride. I was invited by the prince." He looked over me.

"How dumb do you think I am? I wasn't born yesterday." Now I wasn't nervous anymore. I was getting annoyed.

"I never said you were dumb, I just told you that the prince invited me. You took it to that level." He looked at me and held his staff tightly. "So are you going to let me in?"

"No."

"Alright." I crack my knuckles. "I guess I'll have to let myself in." Looks like I'm gonna be fighting in a dress. Oh man.

"Hey." That familiar voice came out of nowhere. "Leatite, let her in." We both stop and look at the tall figure that was Fang.

"Yes sir." That big thing moved back just as I sratightend myself. "I'm sorry, miss." I just walk pass him.

"Yeah, you're lucky he came when he did." I made it to the prince and saw his smile.

"I'm glad you came." I nod.

"Thanks for inviting me." I look to the large room. The tall columns were decorated with bloody red sashes, a large golden staricase was in front of me , the floor was red and gold, and the walls matched. But there pictures of people on them. Many I didn't recognize. Except for the king and Fang. But one with a boy with these light blue eyes and reddish hair stood out to me.

"The royal family." Fang came from behind me. "That's who these people are. Just in case, you were wondering."

"Yeah." I continue to walk forward until my foot hits the first step. "Um, where am I going?" He walks in front of me.

"Would you like a tour now?" I nod. "Alright. Follow me." We get to the top and go down a long grand hallway. I was doing my best not to start going "Oooh! and Ahh!" like a tourist. We came to the living room and there were about four couches, a large fireplace, and a gigantic chandelier.

"Wowwwww!" Well, I couldn't hold that back. "This is beautiful! But-' I point to the couches. "why are they're so many?" Fang lowers my hand and stands over me. His dark eyes were so beautiful.

"That is one of our family secrets." I back away from him before my heart starts back on overdrive.

"What do you mean?" He takes my hand and turns me back to him. We were only inches apart. Our faces, I mean.

"I mean our family is bigger than just the king, queen, and me.' The image of that boy's picture comes back.

"Like that blond boy? The one with blue eyes?"

"Mm-hmm." Fang brings me closer so my head was on his shoulder. "My father adopted some homeless children. They are my brothers and sisters."

"Sisters? Shouldn't we have a princess then?" I look to his eyes again, but he wasn't looking at me anymore. He was more focused on something onthe floor.

"My father, he doesn't want anyone to take the princess's place."

"Why?" His eyes go to mine again.

"Because-"

"Fang! It's time for dinner! Did your guest arrive yet?" Fang groans when he moves away from me. The sudden coolness hit me after his body was gone.

"Yes mother! Come on." He grabs my hand and we move past the living room to another hall. From there, we go down another flight of stairs and come to a gold light. No, it wasn't heaven. It was the kitchen.

"Fang, you're here. Oh! Hello sweetie." I smile to the queen. "Ah, you look so beautiful right now. Much more than when you're in the Arena." I force my smile now. The queen just pretty much called me ugly. Nice.

"Thank you.' I look to the table and the first thing my eyes fall on is the food. Oh my god. I've never seen so much food in my life. It would be enought to feed at least fifty people. "Wow!"

"Mom cooked a lot." The next thing that caught my eye were the children sitting at the table. Two of the chidren sitting next to each other were blond. A boy and a girl. A black girl with these pretty brown eyes sat across from them. And the boy I saw earlier in the picture was sitting next to her. Were these the children Fang told me about?

"Please sit, sweetie." I sat down next to the blond girl adn registered what I just found out. The royal family really do have adopted children that they never told the kingdom about. What? Didn't see that coming?

**That's all for now! I hope you liked the chapter. If you did, please go ahead and leave a review. I'll try to update soon, but high school is starting Monday. So whenever I can, I will. This is a random question, but I want to know. Does anybody like Lissa in this story? Alright, till then.**


	3. Meet The Family

**Disclaimer: I don't own Maximum Ride. Makes sense right?**

Max POV:

"Max, how is our home? I'm sure Fang showed you around." The queen asked as she passed out the food. I snapped away from "the family secret" and looked to her again. There was no way I could actually describe this beautiful place in words. It would just be impossible. I've never seen anything like this, but I take a second to bring something together for her. Just as soon as I was about to anwser, Fang actually cut me off.

"I didn't show her everythnig, but she likes it." We both look to him in confusion. Those dark eyes were closed this time, so there was no telling what he was thinking. But if I know one thing is that the royal family doesn't do rude stuff like that. What was his problem?

"Oh! Well, that's nice. I hope you LOVE my food." The queen's gorgeous smile immediatley made me self consicious. Now that ugly comment she made earlier was starting to get to me now. But I just push that thought away and take my plate. When I do, something hits me. I'm having dinner with the royal family. Just-just wait till I get back to the barracks. I'm gonna rub this in Lissa's face so much she'll never forget. Then she'll so bad about telling me that I was invited just so I would- I'm gonna leave that where it is.

"I'm sure I will."

"Max, is it true that you're one of our dad's gladiators." I look to the little blond girl and nod. "Oooh! That's so cool." A smile just comes to me. If only she knew. I guess being so young it should be very obvious that she wouldn't know what a gladiator's life is.

"Then is it also true that you were promoted today? Are you really going to be in our army?" I looked to the black girl and nodded once again. "I bet you'd be a great warrior."

"Alright, Angel, Nudge, that's enough. Leave Max alone so she can eat." I look back to the queen. So that's their names.

"No. It's alright. Really. I don't mind."

"I don't think so. Once those two get started there's no stoping them. Especially my dear Nudge." She winks at her before going to cut her pig. When I look away from her my eyes fall all over the food. Oh my- this was amazing. Oh my-

"Oh my goodness!" The queen's shriek was like a sign for the others to just stop everything and see what was wrong. Even the king stopped. Hmm. I wonder who really runs thing here. "We didn't introduce the family. Just how could I let that get pass me?" She immediatly points to the blond boy. The one sitting by Angel. I take a chance everyone doesn't and actually eat some of my food. Ohhh! I just fall into the moisture. Ah, the rich life is good.

"This is my youngest son, The Gasman. Or you can call him Gazzy if you want." It's when I hear that name, that I snap out of royal food fantasy and come back to reality. I nearly spat my food out because I was trying so hard not to laugh. Did she say The Gasman? Gazzy? What the-? Even us gladiatiors don't have names like that.

"His name is Gazzy. Why do you call him that?" Then it's like the whole table's attention snaps on me, then it goes to Gazzy. This creepy smile was on his face.

"No. Gazzy don't-" Fang jumped up and held Gazzy back so he would look at him. "Please, for the love of god don't."

"But she asked."

"True, but she doesn't know what'll happen. Please don't let her find out." Gazzy nods and Fang lets him go. Okay. What was I missing from this picture?

"Alright, then-" The queen said recovering from this. "You know Angel and Nudge. This is my second oldest son, Iggy.' She gestured to the blond boy across from me. The portrait one. I looked to him. To those eyes. But there was something about them. Something about the way his eyes looked. Just what was it? That paleness.

"Hi!" Iggy raised his hand in a greeting gesture. What was it? I actually squint a little. What was with those eyes? "It's nice to finally meet you. Fang's been talking about you all day." Just then, Fang cleared his throat and- he threw his fork. Are you lost as well?

"Fang!"

"I'm sorry, mother. It slipped out of my hand." And flew through the air with perfect aim.

"It's alright, mother. Fang has been having some sweaty hands since Max said she would come tonight." Iggy turned away and smiled at me. My mouth dropped open. It was so strange. It wasn't just the fact that Fang actually threw at the table that made that happen though. Even though it had a lot to do with it. A royal acting like that at the table? I REALLY didn't see that coming. But the thing that really made my mouth drop was that when Fang threw the fork it actually was aimed perfectly at Iggy's head. And it didn't hit him. In fact, Iggy moved back right before it could've hit him. Just what-?

"Max, are you going to finish eating?" I look to queen and quickly close my mouth.

"Of course, Your Highness." I take a huge piece of food just to show her how eager I was. But even this small piece of heaven wasn't enough to make me forget about Iggy. God, what about his eyes? I swear, when I find out I will feel so stupid.

Iggy reaches forward for his fork, but he traces his fingers over the table lightly before wrapping his fingers tightly around it. Wait! He brings to fork to his mouth and chews slowly. Those eyes, that color, the tracing over the table, of course!

"You're blind!" I literally jump out of my chair and POINT to him. "That's it! God, it's been killing me! You're blind!" That was gone, and I realized what I said. Oh no. I look around at the royals and slowly put my hand down. This is not good.

"Um, I'm sorry. I was-" My head suddenly falls in shame. Then the worst comes to mind. "I- I guess you're going to get rid of me, right? I can't be a gladiator anymore?" I close my eyes and fear that that king will say yes, but it doesn't come. Instead, the room erutps with laughter.

"Huh?" I look up and see everyone is holding their stomachs because they were laughing so hard. "Umm." Now I was really lost. Were they laughing because I had found out what they were doing before they offically told me. No. Why?

"M-Maximum, you are hilarious!" I stare at the king and wait for him to stop laughing. "Of course we're not getting rid of you. Where in world did you get that idea? My god, that was hilarious!" This was funny?

"Wha-" The king raises his hand and gives me a serious look.

"Maximum, we are not letting you go. Wherever you heard that was very ill informed. Now sit and eat with us." There was nothing left for me to say. I take my seat and let the sudden relief run through me. Oh my- I'm not going. Hmph! Why did I even listen to Lissa in the first place?! I take another bite in pure happiness. Soon, the family is quiet again. I take my wine glass and get a sip. When I do, I steal a glance at Fang. This was more worse than my outburst. He was looking back at me, then he licked his lips. Wh-What?! Fang smiled at again did something with his eyes. Something...seductive.

"Oh my-!" As soon as that came, my cup fel back and the red wine spilled all over my-Lissa's dress. Oh great. So much for rubbing this in her face. If I go back there like this, there's no doubt in currently stunned mind that she will claw my eyes out.

"Oh my goodness. You should get that cleaned up. Dear, wash that would you?" I look to the queen only to see her reaction. She was pleased.

"Of course. I want to see Maximum wear this dress again. We'll wach that for you. You know, I've heard that wine can dye the skin. We should get you to a bath. Quickly." She stood up and motioned me toward her. "Come on, sweetie."

Well, I won't go into this whole thing. I was both angry at myself and Fang. Ughhhh, if he hadn't did...that, I wouldn't be this situation. But I have to deal with this. All I can say is that the royal family is really much nicer than I thought. I lay my head back on the back of the large golden tub and sigh. I've only imagined sitting like this in my dreams. I'd be rich and I'd live somewhere like this. Awww, it feels so great. The water came up as high as my chest, which is pretty far since I'm tall, and was covered in bubbles. I take a handful and blow them. The small bubbles fly in different directions. It was so nice. My hand falls on the edge of the golden tub and I sigh again. And in case you're wondering you heard right. I am sitting in a solid gold tub. Can you believe it? I don't know where the queen heard that silly story, but I thank whoever told her.

"Max?" The small voice that came made me quickly get up.

"Nudge? Angel? What're you doing here?" The girls walk toward me boldly and stand on opposite sides of me. I take my guard up by a lot. What're they doing here? When I'm naked?! Couldn't they have picked a better time?

"Max, we came because our father wanted us to tell you that we are letting you sleep in the former princess's room." Nudge said. I look at them in confusion.

"Okay, but couldn't have you simply just waited till I got out." I mean, was it normal to feel uncomfortable right now? Angel stepped forward.

"Yes, but we came for something else. We came to tell you that Fang likes you."

"A lot." Nudge adds.

"He does?" They nod in unison and smile.

"It's nice to see him so happy, Max." Angel giggled. I just sat there, warm, naked, and shocked. Is it even possible for a royal to like a gladiatior? I haven't heard that happen before. Would this be a first?

"Well, we'll leave you be. Sorry we interrupted your bath."they both walk away and I'm left alone with my thoguhts. That was bad. Leaving me like this was the worst thing they could've done right now. If Fang likes me, he...he couldn't like me. I'm a gladiator, a warrior to his family. I fight and kill for the amusement of others. What could he possibly like about me?

These thoguhts sit on me a little too hard, so I get up out of the warm water and walk to the opposite side of the bathroom. There was a towel and clothes, but these were pajamas. They were serious. I'm going to be sleeping in the royal family's home. I quickly get dressed and admire the silky touch. When I'm outside I find the king in the hallway.

"Hello Max! How was your bath?"

"It was wonderful." He nodded.

"I'm glad. Come. I'll take you to your room." The walk to this room was kind of long. It went down a long hallway to a large red door. "I hope you enjoy it. And thank you for being our guest tonight." The king pushed open the door so slowly to reveal a large dark red room, with walls covered in gold, a soft red carpet, and a humongous red and golden bed.

"Oh my-" I turn to the king. "no, you don't need to do this. I can go as soon as the dress is washed."

"No! Stay the night! It's not often that a gladiator is invited to sleep here." He sounded so excited. Who was I to reject his gift? I smile and walk to the bed. First, I trace my fingers over it to feel the soft cloth and then I just fall, melting myself into the covers.

"Good-night, Maximum." I mumble a good-night before the warm cloth takes me away. Ohh, this soft bed. The royals have it good.

But my sleep didn't last as long as I wanted it too. My eyes burst open and I look around the room. Why did I have to wake up? I was in such a good sleep. I get to my feet and walk to the door. There was no specific direction I was going. bUt somehow I ended up at a stairwell at the end of a hall.

"Hmm." Curiosity takes me before I can stop it. I go up the stairs and remember the coolness I felt in that room. Was I talking to a princess? No, I was dreaming. That only make sense. I get to the top of the stairwell and, there was a glorious veiw over the city. I saw the barracks clear as day and quickly felt bad for the other gladiators. I wish they could see this veiw. Take in the beauty of this place we fight so hard to entertain.

"Couldn;'t sleep either, huh?"

"Fang!" He comes from behind me and puts his arms on the stone wall, closing me in.

"What had you up?" I do my best to hold my blush when his breath hits my neck. He likes me. Fang likes me.

"I'm not sure. I just woke up. What about you?" Fang lightly places his head on my shoulder. HIs warm body had me.

"Just stuff. I couldn't sleep. This is where I usually go to think."

"About what?" His grip on the stones gets stronger.

"Things. Personal things." I manage to turn my head a little so I can look at his face. At first his eyes weren't on me, but then they were. We were so close this time.

"What kind of things?" A smile comes to his lips.

'If I told, it'd strange for you. Besides-" Fang brought his arms closer around me till we were both pressed together."I have secrets. Nobody can know." I don't say anything. I only take in his hard body under mine. Fang.

"Speaking of secrets, what abour the royal family's?"

"Hmm?" I push my head back so we're eye to eye again.

"You didn't tell me about the princess. Remember? That's when the queen came." Recognition hits him and he nods.

"Come with me." He unwraps himself from me and grabs my hand.

"Where are we going?"

"My room."

**Wow! That was a lot! I hope you enjoyed it. Okay, I said I'd update whenever I can and here we go. High school's had me. But I love it. Anyway, I'll try to update later, but I'm gonna update to my other story All I Want Is You Fang, since I haven't updated in a while. If you liked, please review here and thank you to everyone that has loved this. **


	4. Sweet Dreams

**Disclaimer: I DO NOT own the winged works of Maximum Ride. Thank you.**

**Okay, I'm going to update to my other story, but I was lost on it, so I just updated to this one. Please understand, but here is another story for your reading pleasures. Okay, here it is.**

Max POV:

Fang led me down the stairwell and just went down this long hallway. I was going to his room. To Fang's room. Something inside started to burn and I found myself looking at the floor. What was this? Why am I feeling this way?

"Max, we're here." I look up and...he was right. A large black door with a golden F was in front of us. Wow this was amazing. "Please excuse the mess." For that moment, Fang let go of my hand to grab the handle on the door. Then he pulled it back and, unlike the princess's room, it was black. Black everything. His bed, the curtains, floor, really everything.

I walk in slowly to take in the entire room. The floor was clear, so what mess was he talking about? I wish Lissa's and I room was this clean. The ceiling was so high up that when I looked I could feel myself get dizzy.

"Woooow. This is beautiful. Don't you ever got dizzy?" I was so sucked into this that it didn't hit me at how...childish? Tourist-like I was acting.

"You like it?" I nod vigourously. "Well, that's nice." Fang's touch on my hand startled me for a second. "I'd like you to come sit with me."

"Uh-On your bed?" He looked at me and that accursed smile from before came back.

"What do you think?" When he led me over, I sat slowly before falling right into the softness of his glorious bed. It felt way better than my barrack one. So soft. I wish one these tournaments would make this the prize. I move around a little before finally lying down on the soft cover with my eyes closed. I am actually laying on Fang-the Prince's bed. Who saw this coming?

"Fang?"

"Hmmm?" He sounded close. Too close. I open eyes slowly to find him laying right next to me. "You called?"

"Wha-!" I sprung up so fast. "Wha-? How did you get there without me noticing?! What are you?" Fang smiled and stood up slowly. I don't know why, but this dark surrounding really matched him. Was it the mysterious character? Maybe it was the fact that he actually looked more like a prince of darkness to me. Either way, black was definately something hw should start wearing more than this white royal garment.

"It's really simple. I just layed back and looked at your beautiful face."

"Well, give me a warning next time." I look away from his dark eyes so I can look at the covers. A recent thought came out of nowhere. "Fang, I have a question for you?" Do you really like me? Is it true? Do you?

"Um, I wanted to know if you-."

"Yes?" He was TOO close again. I look up and this guy was right in front of me, looking like he was ready to crawl. His breath actually managed to reach my nose. "You wanted to know I what?" Fang brought one hand forward so he had blocked in on one side.

"I wanted to know if-" Oh no. My heart's beating again! No! Please stop, please stop.

"Yes?" He came closer again. "What is it?"

"I-" I scoot back a little to give myself some sort of imaginary thinking space so I can get the words to come.

"Max." I look to those eyes again and see them come closer. Really close. Fang had me so close I could actually see his pupil in his eyes. Allow me to say, if I haven't said so abotu a hundred times before, Fang's eyes are dark. So saying I could see his pupil would have to mean we were in the "kissing zone".

"Why're you taking so long to ask the quesion?"

"If you'd stop coming over me, I could." So to prove my point, I shuffle my way away from him. With this, I also got a safe distance away. That would be about halfway across this large plain. "Now, Fang, do you-?"

"Oh Max!" Fang literally launched forward and started crawling toward me like an animal. "You look so beautiful right now."

"Get back!" The faster he came forward, the more I moved back. What was wrong with him? Was there something in the food? The wine was tainted? "Fang, stay back." By the time that came, he literally had my back against the wall with no escape. "Fang." He had stopped then. Only his eyes were on me.

"What did you want to ask?" Right now Fang seemed so...calm. Just a moment ago he was a crazed bull. What WAS wrong with him?

"Fang, you-" His soft hand went right over my cheek. "Um-" How did a simple caress make me forget my thought?

"Yes?"

"Do you- do you like me?" Fang's hand fell as his eyes searched mine.

"I wouldn't be surprised if Angel and Nudge told you." I nod. "I knew it. It's true, though." His hand was back on me. "I do..like you, Max. That I am very sure I do." Those words. I would've never thought I'd hear anyone say that. Let alone a prince. This was crazy. Fang actually likes me.

"Are you at a lost for words?"

"No. Now tell me about the princess? What happened to her?" This really seemed to ruin the moment for him.

"Wow. It seems like you run on a one track mind sometimes, Maximum." Ughhh. I didn't like how he just said my full name like that. Ewww, it made him sound like such...a royal. Fang backed away and sprawled his body out beside me. Except one hand didn't seem like it was ready to leave me yet; it still lingered on my waist.

"Well, to put it as bluntly and quickly as I can-"

"No. I want to hear the entire story. Everything." Fang looked at me for a second and then looked down.

"Alright then, I guess. About ten years ago, when I was much younger, there was an original four member royal family. Me, the queen, father, and, at that time, the princess Alesia. Back then my father actually ruled the kingdom. Much more than he does now, as you saw at dinner with my mother, because back then the king was actually, how shall I say, happy. He was well used to ruling the throne because of one thing. And it wasn't the kingdom or its population of people. It was for my and my older sister's sake that he ruled the kingdom valiantly. We were what really kept him running. But, you see the king was not only a great leader, but a boaster as well. With every sucess there was celebration and he would show us off like we were some sort of trophies of some sort. I'm not sure how, but one night after my father had wrapped a ceremony Alesia went missing."

Fang brought his head down on my side. "Nobody knew where she was until the next morning. For some reason there was a letter in the rosebush by her room saying 'We have your pride and joy. now give us your riches if you ever want to see her again.' Belive it or not, our father actually tried to look for the men that look her. It was weeks, even months."

"Did you find her?" By the look on his face and the push from common sense, I could tell that my anwser was obvious.

"No, he didn't. We still haven't found her, but since it's been so many years my father had already assumed she's dead. At the realizing of that, he found some sort of way to coax by being with children. Mostly me, until I got tired of seeing him all the time. That was when he found the others all together by the castle gates begging for food. I guess it all came back to him trying to deal with his so-called dead daughter."

I look at Fang as his head lowers and rests near my hip. I felt so bad for him. I never thought I feel that way toward a royal at all. Especially them. I mean, we fight to the death for their amusement. How was I supposed to know that the reason a princess was never breeded because the past one has been declared dead by her own father.

"Fang?"

"Hmm?" I broguht my hand forward and rested it on his head. my fingers just moved themselves through.

"I'm sorry."

"For what?" I stop suddenly.

"I-I don't know." He readjusted himself so his head was on my stomach once again.

"Don't feel sorry for me." Too late for that. "I've moved on." His hand slowly moved over one of mine, squeezing it. "I have."

"Okay." I take a little second to comb my fingers through his hair. A small moan came. But that didn't affect me. Sympathy was occuping my mind right now.

"But since you brought that cruel up again, you have ruined my mood. Now you have to do something to make me feel better."

"Um, I don't think so."

"Please." Fang looked up. "You made me relive that terrible memory." Man, now I really feel bad.

"Alright. What do I have to do?" He smirked.

"Nothing much. Just sleep with me."

"Wha-What!?" He sighed quickly.

"Not that. Let me rephrase it. I want you to sleep BESIDE me. That better?" I look to his face. "Please Max." This was not what I saw coming. Ohhhh, I am so glad I came.

"Well,-"

"We won't do anything." I nod. "Great." Fang sits up and goes to the other side of the room. I'm sleeping with him? No! Sleeping BESIDE him. He comes back and gets under the covers. I just followed.

"Thank you, Max." I nod again while I turn on my side. Facing away from him. But even by turning away he just came over and wrapped his arms around me. "Don't try to run away me anymore." I don't push away at all. I just...melt. I let his arms hold me close to him and keep me there. Stangely, something was wrong with him. Oh right. Even if it was just a way to get me in his bed, I really did bring something dark from his past. It-only makes sense, right?

"Good night, Max." I wait a second.

"Good night."

**That's all. Did you like this? Awww, so much Fax! Now everybody knows what happened to the princess. She is "dead". Please reveiw if you'd like, I'd love to see what you have to say. Well, like I 've been saying, I'll update whenever I can. **


	5. Alice

**Disclaimer: I don't own Maximum Ride. But I'm sure you know that.**

Max POV:

The next morning I stood outside the large doors that led into the Royal Castle.

"Thank you. I really enjoyed my stay here." The king's modest smile came slowly.

"Aww, there's no need to be so stiff, Maximum. You can come back anytime." I nodded slowly and held Lissa's green dress closely.

"Okay, bye." I waved to the king and queen. Then to Fang. Of course I had lingered on him. In fact, we were both stuck on each other. Images of the night before just took over for a second. Reminding me of how vvulnerable the prince could be.

"Good-bye, Max."

"Bye Max!" I smiled and waved at the others that from behind the doors. From there, I just turn away and walk back to the barracks. But these amazing yet disturbing thoughts kept going through my mind. Last night I was with Fang. And we actually had a deep moment about the princess and...his feelings for me.

A huge gust of air comes as I get closer to my home. There is gonna be so much I'll have to tell Lissa.

"I'm back." Her bright red hair pokes out from under the white sheet on her bed. "Uhhh, morning."

"Morning." She crawls out from under the sheet to strech. "How was the royal sleepover? I thought it was just dinner." Lissa's green eyes fall on my face as I walk over to my bed.

"Well, it was. But they invited me to stay the night. How could I resist?" I wanted to keep the whole "I spilled wine on your dress" thing to myself. It wouldn't be very smart to get her mad so early in the morning.

"Oh. So, did anything happen?" Just by seeing the look on her face, i knew she was eager for the anwser, Well, I don't see any harm in letting her in on the details. So I tell her everything. Well, mostly everything. The whole story about princess Alesia was kept to myself. I just felt that that was something I would at least keep to myself. But the moments I had with Fang in the living room and in his room.

"Wow. The prince sounds really...touchy. I thought he would've been more, you know, mysterious." I shake my head and smile.

"You're not the only one that thought that." Lissa stands up and walks to our water bucket. From there, she began to wash her face.

"True. But that doesn't matter. I would still gladly give myself to him if he wanted me to. I just really thought that the prince would play really hard to get." When she finishes her face, Lissa takes her dress and puts it under her bed.

"Well, since I wasn't here last night, did anything happen while I was gone."

"Nothing. Just another night. But there is a touranment today, if you're interested. The prize is supposed to be 5000 coins. Do you know what we could do with that kind of money?" I ponder on this. 5000 coins would be enough to get us a new bed for sure, or maybe two pairs of clothing. Something like that would be really good for us. And I'm serious about that. Gladiators are really poor.

"Hmmm. Yeah."

"Alright well, get your armor on. You might want to just get some practice in."I take Lissa's words in, and exchange the silky pajamas for my hard, cold, and silver armor. It was so nice of the royals to actually let me keep these.

"I'll be back later." I walk back into the bright sun and squint my eyes for a moment. "It doesn't make sense for it to be this bright."

"You're telling me." I jump at the sudden voice that comes. "Sorry, I guess I should let myself be known before I blurt out something." I look to the boy across from me. He sat leisurely on the fountain's edge and looked at the water. At least, I think he was. His face was covered by a dark hood.

"Ummm, who are you?" I heard a small chuckle come from him.

"I'm sorry. My name is Amir. And you are?" I step forward to see if I can get a closer look of him. Sadly, that didn't work.

"My name is Maximum." A small chuckle came from him again. "I don't find anything funny."

"It's nothing involving you. I just thought of a funny joke a friend of mine told me earlier. Please don't worry." He suddenly stood up. "I have to go. Nice meeting you, Maximum."

Okay that was weird. I walk away and get back to the Arena. The same one I was made a warrior in yesterday. Today it was decorated with red sashes adorning the arrival of a new tournament. But even with the new tournament here, the crowd still stood and yelled, ready for bloodshed. Sadly, they won't be getting what they would normally expect in a regular Arena battle. In a tournament, nobody dies here. You may harm them, but death is not allowed here.

"We have a newly accliamed warrior joining us today. Give your full attention to Maximum Ride!" The crowd's voice grew as their attention fell on me in unison. It's so nice to hear the people who bet on my death to arrive yell and cheer for me. It's strange, but true. I open my arms to them and watch as small amounts of coins get thrown at me.

"Good luck out there, Max.'

"Wha-? Fang?" I turn around slowly and drop my arms to see him behind me, wearing a dark hooded cloak. "I see you're expressing your inner fashion." He looked down at his clothes adn nodded.

"It's the only way I could come out the palace and not be recognized." I smile.

"And what brings you out in the first place?" Fang came closely to look into my eyes.

"I wanted to see you in action. When you're not killing people."

"Right." I took one step back before giving his dark eyes another glance. "I'll see you later." All of the contestants join beneath the Royal Box where we get the intitail rules. I already know them, but for the new kids on the block, we have to hear this everytime a tournament comes. The pale announcer walks in front of us and smiles.

"Now, the only rule for these touranments is to not KILL your opponent. We can't afford to start losing any fighters. The royal family would have my head, now do you understand. Anything else is allowed, just as long as the fighter's life is not lost. So, with that in mind, the prize, as some of may know, is 5,000 coins."

I heard several gasps."And that's a lot, so do whatever you can to win. Now, let's get this started." When the announcer shoos us away, I take my place on one of the walls in perfect veiw of the crowd. Two unknown faces take their places beside me and look onward to the crowd. One of the two girls had a pair of the black deominc eyes I've heard about with pale white skin. The other had the blue eyes of the ocean and black hair. Both looked like they would be a worthy opponent for me, so I say nothing. I only look to the announcer as he takes a clear jar from a girl with a amputated hand. Here, he will pick the names for who will fight.

"Maximum Ride!" Screams of amazement follow me to the center of the Arena then quiet when the announcer reaches down for the next name.

"Alice!" The crowd screams as the girl with thr ocean blue etes I saw earlier stops in front of me. Alice. So that's her name.

"Remember the rules, but remember what you're fighting for.' The announcer backs away when I start searching the crowd for Fang. It was so hard to find him when he's in among the common people. Then I sopt him. He was...smiling.

_Ba-Dump!_

No, this is not the time! I turn away quickly and look to Alice. Her face showed no type of expression, not even boredom. What was she thinking? She didn't have a weapon on her. What was she going to fight me with? Does she even know what she got herself into?

"Maximum Ride vs. Alice! Match 1!" I take my sword in my hand and concentrate. 5,000 coins here I come. "FIGHT!"

I immediatly run forward with a raised sword and slash. But this girl actually grabbed the sword and pulled it forward, bringing me along with it. The next thing I know, her knee was in my stomach and all the air in my chest was gone. I taste the Arena dirt before jumping back to my feet and reclaiming my sword from the ground. Did I really just get the air blown out of me? What?

After righting myself, I look back to Alice. How did she do that? How could I let my guard down like that? When I'm back on it, I let my sword fall to my side and charge. She doesn't move from my assault at all. She just stands there and takes an impaling shot to her side. it wasn't a kill shot, but I know that had to hurt.

"Was that suppossed to hurt?" I look up from sword to see her eyes were on me.

"What?!" Her hand folds in around my throat and I feel the ground disappear from beneath me.

"A warrior? Taken down this easily? Hmm, the king's slipping." I fight back as hard as I can while the air becomes thinner and thinner. My arms squeeze hers in a acr of freedom, but to no avail. I can already see my eyes turning red. No. Let me go.

"Stop! You'll kill her!" The announcer's voice was miles away.

"Oh, right." The hard ground hits my back and I quickly try to grab as much air as I can. "I forgot." I look up to Alice. She almost killed me. "Allow me to leave you with a parting gift." The bright shine of my sword in the sun made my eyes grow wide.

"N-N-" I try, but the sword is raised, catching the light even more, and comes down into my stomach. I was stabbed. I was stabbed by my own weapon. How could this happen? Just how could I let this happen? The warm liquid that is my blood seeps away and paints the dirt with the dark red color. It doesn't take long for it to cover my hands.

"Maximum!"

"Max!" The announcer comes over me and me. "Max!"

"F-" Fang's dark form comes next and I feel the pressure of his hands over my body come. "Fa-'

"Shhh. Don't speak." The whole world starts to spin like a top. And then it goes to red. Soon, there's a bright light ahead that I hope is the sun. But the light diminishes and I'm left in the darkness. Alone.

**Cliffhanger! Cliffhanger! I bet that left you on edge! I'm sorry for updating so late, but my family is moving, and packing had me. I will be sure to update as soon as I can. Truly. Thank you, everybody! You are all great. Thanks for reveiwing, favoriting, and following. Be ready for next chapter!**


	6. Wide Awake

**Disclaimer: The angelic works of Maximum Ride do NOT belong to me.**

**Okay, everyone, I'm sorry for not updating in...a while. But here is the next chapter. I hope you enjoy**.

Max POV:

Save me. Please somebody, anybody save me. The arms of the adrkness wrap around me so tightly that I feel like I'm about to suffocate. Is this what a near death experience feels like? I pictured that small moment before you die differently. I thought it would be like how everyone has said it would be; a flash. A quick run down of your life. No matter how bad or good it was, you would see a show of the life you will soon be departing. But, this was nothing like that.

What I saw was a sea of darkness? Not a single image was here. Where was the flash? Where the clip of me with my dead parents? Me becoming a gladiator, then a warrior? Meeting Fang at the fountain? Where was all of that? This was a terrible way to go. I was taken down by my own weapon and I don't even get a nice show before I pass on. Wow.

My surroundings get darker till I'm stuck in pitch darkeness. Now I couldn't tell where I going. All I felt was a light falling sensation. I'm falling, but where?

_Max. _Huh? Who?

_Max! _Fang? What are you doing here?

"Max! Wake up! Please!" It was like the lights came on suddenly. The darkness just seeped away from me and light came. After that, it was like my eyes opened up again. I could see something new. My body felt...stronger. I think that's the word I'm looking for.

"Max! Wake up!" Fang. "Wake up!"

"Sir, she is conscious." The falling sensation I felt was beginning to change. Now I was rising, and the light was getting brighter.

"Max, please. Come back to me." I bring my arm forward and reach out to the brightness. "Max." I'm coming Fang.

Fang POV:

"Max, come on."

"Sir." I take Max's hand and hold it between my own.

"Please wake up. Please." I have been reapeating that one phrase for the longest. Ever since we came back from the Arena, Max had been losing far too much blood and she just recently stopped bleeding. Thanks to the royal doctor stiching her back together. The hideous black thread that holds Max's gash together rised and lowered with her as she scraped together her breaths.

Why did this have to happen? Why her? Why Max?

"Your Highness?" The sound of my guard's voices made me snap back.

"What? Did you find her?" He lowered his head. "Damn. Look again. You can not stop looking for her." I turned back to Max's sleeping face. How is it that even now, she can remain beautiful?

"Your HIghness, we have searched all over the kingdom. Even in the dark and abandoned ghettos. We have found no sight of her. Your Highness, she has left."

"No." I accidentally squeeze Max's hand in anger. "No. Go back and look again. She couldn't have gotten far. Find Alice." My hand rests on Max's cheek. "You have to find her. You must."

"But, Your Highness-"

"Do as I say, you must not rest till you have found her." The sound of his armor reminds me he is leaving.

"Yes Your Highness." Now I was left with this beautiful girl beside me. This young gladiator. Max.

"Excuse me, Your Majesty, but who is this girl? To you, I mean? You seem very... attached to her." I look to the light blue eyes of the doctor.

"She's-"

"A lover?" A strong blush came suddenly. Max and I as lovers? We couldn't, we- I look closely at her face. We could be.

"No, we're not lovers. I just-"

"Ahhhhh!" His sudden outburst made me jump. God, he could have at least gave me a warning. "You have a crush don't you, sir?" That made me turn to him. "Is it true?" I just sit there and stare at him for a second. "You know, it wouldn't be surprising. Your father once favored a gladiator during his prime. But, he settled for you mother in the end. It's funny." A smile comes over his wrinkled face.

"A member of the royal family would be shocking for the kingdom to learn about, don't you think?" he says.

I look to Max. A royal and a gladiator. There is an invisible line between us; a line that just seperates us. A line that nobody has been brave enough to cross officially. I hold her hand even more. What would happen if I were to cross that?

"Sir!" I snap out of my thoughts. 'Sir! She's waking!"

"What?!" I quickly look to Max and I can feel my heart racing. "Max!" Her eyes squeeze together and loosen up. "Max, please wake up."

"F-Fang." My eyes widen. Max's eyes slowly open to reveal the dark brown iris. "Fang?" Life flows back into her face.

"M-" She slowly gets to a sitting position and winces. "Max-"

"Fang." I don't know hat made me do it, but I just jumped out and wrapped my arms around Max so tightly that I was sure she couldn't move. Max.

Max POV:

Fang is the first person I see when the light disappears. Everything about him shows concern. He was worried. Well, his face was the best thing to see after that whole mess from before. Then I notice the doctor beside him. I was in the infirmary. I lived. I'm alive.

"Fang?" He suddenly wrapped his arms around me. The feeling of him holding me at all shocked me. Did he really miss me that much? Did I really worry him that much? I guess this should be expected. He cares for me.

But something strange happens. My arms come up slowly and hold Fang closely. What is this? What am I feeling? This strong burning sensation? Happiness? Overwhelming realizaiotn that I actually survived an imapling attack? Or...something else?

"Max, thank you." I bury my head in the nape of his neck and the sudden feel of tears catches my attention. Am I crying? "Max."

The warmth of the tears gets to my cheeks, then it hits me. This feeling. I'm happy that I'm alive, but it has to be coming from something else. It's too strong. I slowly back away from Fang so I can look at his face.

"Fang, I'm alright." His face seems different now. I just couldn't name it. What was it?

"Max, thank god." He brings me in for another embrace. My heart races all over again, but in a differnt way. But what is this feeling?

"Max-" What am I feeling? What is this?

"I love you."

**That's all for now. I hope you liked this chapter. Max lives! And a confession! Please leave a reveiw if you want and I'll try to update soon. Thank you for the support everybody!**


	7. Tonight All Your Dreams Will Come True

**Disclaimer: As you know, this is the disclaimer. That can only mean I'm disclaiming something. It's Maximum Ride. I'm disclaiming Maximum Ride.**

Max POV:

I love you. I just blurted it out. What was I thinking? Fang just sat there with his arms around me. What was Fang thinking right now? Did he think I was pathetic for that? It's true he cares for me, but are his feelings really so strong that they can be called love? Oh God, I really don't want to know. But I DO want to know. No, I don't want to know what he thinks of a gladitior's love confession. But-. I am so confused.

"Fang?" I try to push away from him, but it was like he turned into a rock on me. There was no way I was going to get him away. "Fang, I-" Suddenly, he backed away from me and sped toward the door. His warmth slowly left my body. What just happened? Why did he leave? Oh no.

"Well well well, the prince can scared off too I see. Never thought I'd see that." That doctor. I slowly turn to him. "Don't worry, my dear. There is no need to worry." Those words did not help me. At all. What could Fang have been thinknig of me right now? Just what? My stomach felt like it was doing flips and my heart felt like it was sinking. This was not a pain I was familiar with. This did not feel right.

"I-I have to go." I stood up and was quickly pushed back by the wave of pain that came from the gash.

"Maximum, you can't go! That is not permanent coverage. It could open again." The doctor jumped up to get me back to the bed.

"No, I can't be here. I have to go." He looked at me like I was crazy. Just how was I crazy?

"If anything should happen, you must come back here as soon as possible." Thank god.

I just confessed a love that I never really understood until I was put in the infirmary with a gash over my stomach. It's amazing what'll happen when someone is saved from the eternal rest.

"Lissa, I-I don't know what to do." As you may have guessed, I left the infirmary and came straight to the barracks. I figured maybe if I had heard from another female who was familiar with my way of life, I'd get rid of the many neves I had right now. And besides that, it seemed more like Lissa and I were actually getting closer. Maybe even friends. That makes sense right? At least, Lissa could understand a little more of where I'm coming from. A gladiator like me and the prince, Fang.

"Max, I really don't understand. You should have seen this coming. I mean, you would always gret excited whenever the prince came around, it should've been obvious." I look into her green eyes. Okay, I did not see that coming.

"Lissa, I came to you for advice. You're really not helping me right now."

"I never said I was going to help you. I'm just telling you what I feel toward this. It was pretty stupid leaving before finding out what he thought." Anger hit me.

"Well, you could at least pretend to help me. Cheer me up, at least." Lissa only brushed that off.

"Max, I don't understand. Do you want me to help you? Or do you want me to be honest and tell you what I feel?" I didn't say anything. "Do you want the truth or a lie?" I still didn't say anything.

"I can't believe I thought you would help me. I knew I would have to work this out myself." I stand up and quickly lose my footing. I press my hand to my stomach. Damn this thing. "I'll be back later." When I'm outside, I ran, more like sped walked to the fountain. Just what was I supposed to do now? These stupid feelings were so confusing.

My reflection shows me the face of a confused, tired, posssibly lovesick girl. Well, isn't that the million coin description of how I feel.

"Maximum?" I turn away from my reflection to see a blond boy coming toward me. "We meet again." My eyebrows lowered.

"Ummm, do I know you?" The boy started laughing.

"I'm sorry. The last time we met, I was wearing that dark cloak. It's me, Amir."

"Oh." Just hearing the tone in my voice, made me realize how dead it was. There wasn't an ounce of emotion in it.

"I heard about the toranment. How are you walking? Isn't it a bit...early?" Does anyone else think he's being a little too nosey?

"I left on my own terms. What brings you here?" Amir slowly approches me and sits on my right side.

"I've been coming here often. It helps me...think. Does it do that for you too?"

"Yes." He looks away and puts his gray eyes on the water. Who was this guy?

"Maximum, we have such a beautiful reflection. Don't you think?" That quickly made me look back. "You are so beautiful. Far too beautiful to be a warrior." I look at him, only to see his stupid eyes on the water.

"What are you getting at?"

"Oh nothing." This creepy smile came. "I just figured that maybe you would have a change of career. I mean, your beauty could you in a lot of places. Much further than that arena. Perhaps my bed."

"You sick-" I literally grabbed his face and pushed him into the fountain. Water splashed everywhere as it coated the rough granite. There is no need to say that Amir's blond hair was soaking wet. And it turned a sort of dark brown.

"Really Maximum. That wasn't lady like at all." I jump to my feet, wince at the pain, and turn around. Nothing else was said. It took me a few seconds to register what just happened. Did he really try to talk to me? What was that supposed to accomplish? Wow. I look back to find that he is gone.

"What the-?" I shake my head. "Whatever." I push the door open to my barrack. The next part made me stop. "Iggy?" He just sat there on my bed with my sword in his hands. Lissa was sitting on her bed, looking at me like "Uh, what is he doing here?"

"Hey Max." He stood up and slowly made his way over to me. I wonder how he can do that without hitting anything.

"Uh, hi." I look at his white royal cloth. "Um, why are you here?" Iggy smiles and lightly moves his finger over my sword.

"I came to deliver this. You left it after you ran away. You know, after your little confession." I quickly blush. Then I thank the gods that he can't see.

"Thank you." I take the sword back and look into the endless sea of blue that is his eyes. "Um, is that all you came here for?"

"No. I came to tell you that my father needs you. Come with me."

"Huh?" Iggy gently grabs my hand.

"It's really important." Lissa did nothing as Iggy pulled me away. Unless you count giving a confused shoulder shurg as something. I waited till we were outside before I asked Iggy what the king wanted with me.

"He didn't tell me. At first, he was going to get Fang, but he was...off. I don't think he knows about your outburst yet." Oh no. now I bet Fang really DOES think I'm crazy for that. Now I'm the reason he's in an emotional rut! Great. Just great. The walk to the castle was quiet until we got to the gate. That giant guard from the night I came for the dinner was standing there looking like an idiot. Like usual.

"Leatite, good evening." He bowed his head.

"Good evening, Your Highness." He just looked at me. This didn't surprise me, so I looked back. Then I flicked him off when he got through the doors.

"Max!" Angel and Nudge came running from the top of the staircase. Then they just hugged me. At first, I was surprised, but they quickly let go.

"Max, you're back! Do you want to come to our room? We have some new toys!" I was about to anwser, but Iggy beat me to it.

"She can't. Father wants her."

"Awwwwww!" I follow Iggy up the stairs, down a long hall, and to the throne room. It had a red carpet like the front room, but two large golden chairs that held he king and queen was there. And there were red sashes hanging all over the room.

"Hello Maximum." Iggy walks with me as I approach the royals.

"Hello, Your Majesty." I quickly bow for some reason when he looks over me.

"Rise." I quickly rise, then wince. Okay, I have GOT to stop making quick movements like that. "Maximum, you must be wondering why I invited you."

"Actually yes."

"Well, I've called you here because I need you. There had been some confrontation with our sister kingdom." I didn't see where he was going with this. But then, it hit me. "Maximum, a battle is coming. I need you to join my armed forces and leave for there." I mouth nearly dropped. Is he-? "I ask for your aid. As a warrior for the Roman Army."

**Okay, I hope you enjoyed this. I really wanted to make it dramtic at the end, you know all ominous and stuff. Well, now Max is going to actually join the Roman Army. Or will she? Please reveiw!**


	8. Love Is In The Air

**Disclaimer: Well, I don't own Maximum Ride. That's it for that.**

Max POV:

"Your Highness. Are you-?" He nodded. I couldn't believe it. Everything's coming true. I'm going to actually be in the Roman Army. Oh, happy happy joy joy! This is unbelievable.

"Well, Maximum? Will you join them for the trip?"

"Yes! I mean-" I cleared my throat. That had too much excitement. I have got to play it cool. "Yes. I will."

The king clapped his hands together when he yelled "Perfect!" God, he was more excited than me. "Well, that is all I needed. I will send someone to come pick you up tomorrow morning." I bowed.

"Yes, Your Highness." When I turn away and begin to walk pass the large door, I was trying really hard not to just bust out and start doing flips here. Can you really see me doing that? If I didn't have such a good hold on my excitement, the king would've seen that. And then, I would've been embarrased. I manage to get to the stairs before my lid manages to burst open a little.

"Yes! Yes!" I raise my hands into the air and walk trimphantly down the stairs. "Yes!Thank you!" But when I was getting to the front door,something catches my eye. Be ready for this.

"Max." I turn back and find Fang standing casually against the wall beside me.

"Fang." On no. I really hope he didn't see that. "Uh, hey." He comes forward and starts to approach me. When he looks right into my eyes, I remember what happened earlier. He didn't even anwser my surprising confession. What did he think of that? Oh no. I wonder if he'll be able to catch me if I run toward the door.

"Hi." Fang stops right in front of me with that look still on me. I didn't know what to say. I mean, what was there TO say? It's bad enough that he just walked out on my confession, which was surprising for both of us, and he probably saw me hopping around earlier.

He lightly brushes his hand over my face. This made my heatr start pounding really hard. This is NOT good.

"Fang-"

"Max, please come with me." I don't even get enough time to anwser because he grabs my hand and starts pulling me away. "I want you to see something with me." I really felt like Fang was going to be uncomfortable like Iggy had said earlier, but he didn't seem anything like that at all. Maybe he was just really good at hiding his emotions.

When we get to the stairs, Fang takes me down the familar path that had led to the tower.

"Fang, where exactly are we going?" He doesn't anwser for what feels like forever.

"I need to talk to you." It's been a long time since someone told me that and not have be a death threat. 'It's really important." Fang leads me up the stairs and we stop right by the edge. That's when I end up walking over adn looking over the kingdom again. It was just as beautiful as the night I last saw it. If ONLY the other gladiators could see this. Man, if only.

"Max, there's a reason I brought you here." Fang came from behind me and put his hands on top of mine. Deja vu, right? "It's about that- you joining the army." My eyes grew wide. I looked up and met his eyes. It turns out he was more focused on me than anything else. "I don't want you to go. I really don't."

"Wha-?" His hold on my hands grew strong. Was he really saying that he didn't want me to go to the army? Was he serious?

"Max, please stay here. It's really dangerous out there, something could happen to you."

"Fang." I turn my hands over so I end up with his hands in my grip. "Do you love me?" At first, he looked confused, then he went serious again.

"Max, this isn't the time for-"

"Fang." I squeeze his hands even more. "You didn't anwser me yet. Now seems like a perfect time, don't you think?" Fang just stared at me. Then, he brought our intertwined hands back and wrapped me in a hug. It was a weird king of hug though.

"Max, I-" My heart was off again. The worst was hitting me right now. What if he says he really doesn't love me? It's taking all my courage to just sit here and wait. Seconds were feeling hours, longer. What was taking this guy so long? For a while, he just looked at me and said nothing. No. This can't be real. No. This isn't happening. No. When Fang didn't anwser for such a long time, I was sure I knew his anwser. My heart dropped.

"Fang, if you-" My eyes were starting to water up. On great. Here we go. "If you don't, you know,-" Kiss. Fang cut me off by pressing his lips to mine. It took me a second to have it register that Fang was kissing me. We were kissing! I was KISSING Fang. Me and the prince! Oh my- "Fang,-" I had to breathe. I was trying to back away, but Fang was making sure that didn't happen. "Fang, I-"

"Sorry." He backed away so fast that the daze he put me in had me under. "I didn't mean to-" Fang didn't finish. Why? Because I turned around so I could kiss him right on the lips. Fang put his arms around me and held me close. I did the same, but I got drawn into this. The feel of his body against mine was great. But after a while, Fang backed away. When he did, I nearly fell on him. Whoa. Where did that come from?

"Max, yes. I do love you. That's why I don't want you to go. I don't want anything to happen to you." His hand moved over my cheek. "I love you so much." Whoa! That kiss really must've gone me good. I'm hearing things!

"What?" He kissed my lips again.

"I said I love you." Oh! So I wasn't hearing things. Cool. Wait,

"Oh my gosh."

"What is it?" The concern is his eys only lasted looked down. I put my hands on his chest.

"Nothing, Fang. I'm just happy." He nodded. Fang held me even more.

"Great. Now, Max about the army-" I pushed away from Fang this time. "No, you don't have to anwser. I want to do something before yuou make your decision." Fang grabbed my hand and started down the stairs.

"Fang, where are we going?"

"I want to take you on a date."

**Okay, that's all for now. Sorry for being all behind. I had some projects to do for my classes. I hope you enjoyed this chapter. Please reveiw and I'll try to update soon.**


	9. Just Hold Me

**Disclaimer: I do NOT own Maximum Ride. Although, I really do wish I did.**

Max POV:

Fang pulls me close when a carriage rides by. Wow. It's been so long since I've actually been to the city. Gladiators were actually never supposed to leave the barracks. Ever. We walked around slowly as we passed the sights. The tall buildings glowed so bright it felt like I was going to go blind, the people were all dressed so beautifully, way better than me, and well, the real thing that got my attention was the food. I know t's kind of sad that my stomach will get the better of sometimes, but this was unbelievable.

"Oh my gosh!"

"How long has it been since you've been how here, Max?" I snap my head away from all the surroundings and look to Fang.

"A looong time." He smirked before looking away.

"Well, don't let this excite you too much. The date hasn't even started yet." He takes my hand so casually like he's been doing it for years. "Max, I need to be sure that you want to do this me. I mean, if you don't want to go anywhere, I can take you back to the castle."

"No. I want to do something special before I end up leaving tomorrow." This…look came on his face. It was a little hard to see it under the dark hood of hid cloak, but I could tell I've never seen it before.

"Max, I'm gonna make you change your mind by the end of the night." Fang pulls me toward this fancy shop. Mph I think. Good luck with that.

It was a dress shop. Fang actually took me to a dress shop. What the heck?

"Uhh, Fang? What're we doing here?" A young girl on the other side of the store spots us and starts making her way over.

"I want you to look really nice for the evening." As soon as he said that, the store girl stopped right in front of us.

"Hello!" Her smile was just TOO bright. I thought her cheeks were going to split. "Is there any way I can help you this evening. We have all kinds of dresses to choose from. Please, what did you have in mind? Does it look like we could-?"

"Excuse me." Fang smiled a little when he cut her off. I really hope she didn't see that. "I already had a dress reserved for tonight. I put it under the name 'Fang." I stay watching this girl. I couldn't have been the only one seeing that she was looking too hard at Fang's face.

"Of course. I will go get it." When she walked away, I decided it was time to ask.

"You reserved a dress for me?"

"Yes." I nodded.

"Did you pick it?" I ask, thinking of Fang's dark taste.

"No. Nudge and Angel did."

"Oh." We stood there awkwardly until our dress girl came back. Yes, It was kind of awkward just standing waiting for a dress. I don't know why, but it was.

"Here you go. Would you like to try it on?" I nod slowly and follow her to the small dressing area in a far off corner. "Here you are." I already have an image of the dress before I even get the box open. It's gonna be bright, puffy, sparkly, just way too girly. But when I open it, my thoughts get a huge realty check. The dress was a dark blue color with silver chains tied around the waist with a little bit of glitter thrown over it in a sort of pattern. The kind that meant no matter what direction I was facing, I was sure to start sparkling.

"Wow." That was the only thing I could think of because, well this was amazing. And I didn't even have the dress on yet. But when I put it on, I was breathless. There was no way the girl being reflected in the mirror was me. It just couldn't be me. She was way too beautiful. "Oh my gosh." I let my hands trace over the smooth fabric. "I look good."

"Max, are you ready?"

"Uh yeah." I grab the rest of my armor and hold in my arms. Then I open the door. You really wouldn't believe what I saw after it. Did you guess yet?

"Oh my-! You look so beautiful, miss! Doesn't she, sir?" At first, I thought the store girl was just faking so we would get this dress, but Fang proved me wrong. His mouth fell open and his eyes were wide. Wow.

"Umm, Fang." I waved my hand in front of his face to snap him out of his trance. He shook his head and blinked like a hundred times before getting back to the "cool guy" again.

"I- You look great." I couldn't help but smile.

"Thank you." Fang just looked at me for a while before he just smiled. "Fang, are you ready to go? I'm ready for this date to start."

"Right!" Well, I wish I knew I could make guys drool a long time ago. Fang takes my hand and we leave the store. "Alright, Max." He grabs my hand. "Let's go." The moment we step onto the busy city streets, I felt really different. Is this what a girl on a first date feels like? I felt both happy and very anxious for what Fang had planned. This was really new to me as you can see. But there also another emotion going on inside. I had the overwhelming sense that something was going to go wrong. Kind of like the evening would go great and then something just screws it up later on. Can you understand? It's the worst thing to have go through your mind on your first date.

Wait. What am I worrying about? I'm on a date right now. Who knows when this will happen again. We get toward a large crowd in the city square.

"It's that the-?!" A huge smile came over my lips. "The fair!" I squealed. I sounded just like a little kid. "Oh my gosh! Fang, let's go!" I actually started pulling his arm. Well, I guess it's pretty obvious I didn't get to do a lot when I was a kid. "Please! Oh please! Can we go?" That look he made made me realize that the fair was not part of what he had planned but the look quickly changed and he smiled. I wonder how many times he smiled.

"Alright, let's go!"

"Yay!" Don't tell anybody about me reacting this way. No one. I grab Fang's hand and lead the way.

The fairgrounds were beautiful. The bright lights that came from the firecrackers was mesmerizing. And not only that, there were games. We walked forward and all eyes were on us. I just wish Fang could take off his hood though.

"Fang, could you take the hood off? Just for tonight?" He looked down at me. "Please." I was NOT going to start begging.

"Yeah, but it won't be long before-" Oh no. Fang grabs the him of the hood, but I hold his hands I place. No. Please tell me I'm hallucinating. I look forward and see Alice. The same Alice that nearly killed me in the Arena. Her blue eyes spotted me and then she…smiled. A surge of- fear runs down my spine. I can't believe this. What is she doing here? Why is she here? Just what could have-?

"What's wrong, Max?" Fang pulls my hands away so he could look at me.

"It's nothing. I just changed my mind. I want to do something else." He didn't look convinced. "Please, Fang. I want to go." Fang brought my hands down and held them close.

"Alright, Max. Let's go, then." I take his hand and we start walking in the opposite direction. As we make our way back to the city, Fang doesn't let go of my hand. I'm so glad he didn't ask why I wanted to go. Sadly, it was pretty obvious he was going to ask me later on.

"How about a carriage ride?" I look up and find the horse with the large majestic carriage behind it. "It seems safe there, don't you think?" It was obvious he was making a joke.

"Yeah." We sit inside and we start going…somewhere. "Where are we going? I never went to this side of the castle before." Fang pulled his hood off finally. I couldn't believe I missed seeing his face.

"Believe it or not, my father had this reserved for us. He figured it would be nice to at least get you to see the rest of the kingdom. You know, since you've been all bunched up in those barracks."

"Well, that sounds nice of him." Fang leaned back into the seat and looked out to the large ocean beside us.

"He doesn't believe I will get you to change your mind." I sigh. I knew there was something.

"Fang." I put my hand on his lap. "What's bothering you?"

"Max, I don't want you to go. Isn't that obvious?" Oh great. I felt really bad right now.

"Fang, I'm not going. I really want to go. Who knows when this will happen again?" I couldn't already tell that that was the worst thing to say. Fang was really upset.

"Max,-" Fang closed his eyes and bit his lip. "I don't want you to go. Why can't you just stay? Won't you miss me?" Oh no.

"Of course I will. But,-"

"No. Forget it. I know you want to do this. Max, I just want you to be happy." Now I felt really bad. I looked down for a second. "What's wrong?"

"Fang, what're you saying? How can I decide if all you're doing is making me feel bad!" Well, I didn't see us yelling being anywhere in the date. Fang just looked at me at least until I looked away, fuming.

"Max." I didn't say anything. "Max, I'm sorry." Fang put his arms around me. "Please, forgive me." Dang. I gave in. I just let Fang hold me and I melted right into his arms. Then I just looked up and kissed him on the lips. At first, it seemed like a surprise for him, but then he came in too. Oh this was great. It felt like hours went by until the driver told us the ride was over. It seems Fang got more attention than the ride itself.

"Max, I love you." Fang said as we stopped in front of my barrack. I looked at him and kissed him again.

" Love you too." I opened the door but he grabbed my hand and hugged me from behind. "I really do, Fang." I just knew what he really wanted me to do. When he let me go, I walked inside and found Lissa was asleep. Well, looks like no girl talk tonight. I lay down on my bed and remember the night. Now I have to choose. Here we go.

**There we go! I hope you liked this chapter! I had school stuff, so that explains the lateness. Fang and Max finally had a date! Okay, please review and I'll try to update soon. Well, when I get another chance. Thanks guys!**


	10. Goodbye

The next morning I layed on my bed, still. My eyes searched over the ceiling for little patterns. Well, the morning just came too quickly. At least, too fast for me. Now I would have to come up with what I'm gonna do.

I sighed loudly. Why did Fang have to do that? I would've easily come up with what I was going to do if he hadn't taken me on that date.

"Ughhhhhh!" I actually enjoyed myself last night; I really did. And now I'm lying here trying to see what I'm going to do. Do I stay? I turn to look at the wall. Yeah, and miss out on the chance to get into the army. I don't think so. Who knows when this'll happen again? But Fang- I sit up. What about him? He's right, something could happen while I'm out there and-there is a possibility I won't be the same if I come back….if I come back. Well, I doubt I could die out there. At least, I know what I'm doing. If I end up in a near death experience like I did in the Arena at least there will be some people to take care of me. So, nothing to worry about. But then again, I could just stay here with Fang and not worry about the mission.

"Ahhhhhh!" I slam my fists on the bed in frustration. "Why is this so hard?! I want to be in the army! But-"

"Maybe it wouldn't be so hard if you didn't yell so much." Uh oh. I look up and find Lissa's green on me with that "I will kill you for ruining my beauty sleep" look. Oh this is not good. "You're still going on about that?" For a second, I really didn't know what she was talking about because I was still scared of that look she was giving me.

"I can't make up my mind of whether I'm gonna stay or not. I mean, normally this wouldn't have been hard, but Fang, he-" I looked down for the right words. "He made things really difficult for me." The room was silent for a second while Lissa looked at me with a blank expression.

"Oh, he kissed you last night or something?"

"Wha- How'd you know?" She smiled.

"You're making it really obvious."

"Oh, I didn't know I had "I kissed a prince pinned on my face." That was when she got up.

"Do you need help?" I nodded. I thought that was really obvious. "Well, do you really want to go into the army?" I nod. "And you really want to stay with Fang too, right?" I nod again. "Why?" I just sit there and look at Lissa.

"Because I love him!" Whoa! Wait a minute. Did I really just say that? I put my hand over my mouth. I guess it really is true. I really DO love Fang. Why'd it take me this long to figure it out?

"Okay, then. You love Fang, but you really do want to follow your dream too, right? So, what's so hard? All you have to do is go with your heart. Give it a chance to think for you. You're using way too much logic. For once, let your heart choose for you." I really couldn't help but feel like she was pulling this out of a old folk story. You know, the hero, well, heroine at this point feels confused and they need guidance. So, the old mentor gives them some cheesy advice about following their heart. But instead, of having an old man telling me what to do, I have Lissa; my gladiator bunkmate…and friend.

"Lissa, are you serious?"

"Yes Max. Don't think about it. Just go with what you feel. You have time." Suddenly, there was a knock at the door. I quickly looked to the side. "Who is that?" Well, so much for that long 'what am I feeling time' I needed. I stand up and walk over to the door. Behind it there was a tall, skinny, young soldier. He looked down at me, but only a little. He was not as tall as Fang.

"Maximum Ride. I am here to-"

"I know why you're here, and-"Well, here we go. "I'm coming with you." I look back to Lissa to see her expression. She seemed as surprised as I felt. That was a lot easier to say then I thought. I left with the young soldier and he escorted me to the royal castle. There the king stood at the front door.

"Maximum! I am so glad to see you made it. Fang said that you were not going to show." I forced a smile.

"I can't say he was wrong. This was kind of tough." The king came over, grabbed my shoulders, and made that fake royalty smile disappear.

"Maximum, beyond that, I am very honored to have you on my army. I thank you."

"Thank you for offering." We stood there, awkwardly, until the soldier cleared his throat.

"Your Highness, will she be leaving with us later on?" The king nodded. Then, he led me inside of the castle. The castle seemed somewhat different now. I couldn't decide whether it being the fact that it was dark outside or that the moon was out, either way, the once bright large columned room was dark and sinister looking. Like something was going to come out at any time.

"Maximum, I've prepared a new uniform for you. I have left it in the princess's room. Do you remember where it is?"

"Yes. Thank you." When the king smiles, something about it was…strange, real. Like he wasn't doing it to just aggravate me.

"When you're done, I want you to meet me in the throne room. There, you will be assigned." I nod and turn away. "Oh, and Maximum!" I turn back. "I have grown very fond of you, not only because of my children, but you yourself. And I have let many opportunities of your rudeness to slide, but now, that you're in the army, when I say something you answer me with a 'No, Your Highness' or 'Yes, Your Highness." I look at the king as I search his face. I guess I was getting a little comfortable with just nodding. "Please understand that these are my countrymen you will be around. I have a reputation to keep."

"Yes, Your Highness." I look away from him to go down the familiar path to Princess Alesia's room. I wonder if the king knows that I know about what happened to her.

When I get to the large door, I casually push it open and look over the beautiful room. Wow, it still looked the same. Well, except for the shiny gold armor that rested on the silky covers of the bed. I run my fingers over the cold metal. All I can is, that the army armor looked WAAYYYY better than my gladiators'. The kingdom's fire insignia was on the chest and the idea that it was pure gold made it all the more amazing. But, I take the helmet in my hands. It was a lot lighter than I thought.

"That gold was well refined. That way it wouldn't be so heavy on the soldier's body. "I quickly look back with my hand down where my sword would be on my waist. Why do I keep forgetting that thing?

"Wait, Fang?" He comes from behind the door with the dark cloak that he had on that day at the Arena. "What're you doing? And why are you sneaking around?" He looks at me and shakes his head.

"I'm guessing you're going, right?" He stops right in front of me. I could see his dark eyes were on me, but they were impassive.

"Yes."

"I guess I couldn't change your mind." His face suddenly changed to anger.

"Fang, it's like I'm gonna be gone forever. I'll be back, I promise. I won't leave you like this." Fang takes my hand. "I promise I'll come back."

"I know you will." Fang brings my hand to his lips and kisses it. "But I want you to be happy. I love you." When Fang said that, it made me smile. This was all natural.

"I love you too." We look at each other and then we kiss. First once, then twice, then he held me close. Then we started to kiss again. I would've enjoyed this even more if this armor wasn't in the way though. By the time, Fang and I finally broke apart, I was dizzy.

"Max, I really hope you're alright on that trip." He takes my hands and holds them together. Then he puts them on his chest. "Please be safe." I nod.

"I will. I promise. Now, uh-"I look down to my new set of armor. "Can you-?"

"Yeah." Fan lightly dropped my hands and turned away. That's when I began to change. My army suit felt really different. For one thing, it was definitely lighter; just like Fang said. All the while, I felt….special. Ahh, I wonder if this how a new soldier feels.

I open the large doors and find Fang by the doorway. I smile.

"May I escort you?"

"Yes."

"Max!" The small voices that came from behind us made me turn around. That's when I got bum rushed by the kids. Angel, Nudge, and the Gasman(I'm still lost on that name). Iggy was right behind them. "Max! Are you really going?" I looked down at their huge eyes. Now they were sad.

"Yes, but I'll be back. I promise." Suddenly, they started hugging me.

"Max, please come back! We'll miss you." I manage to hold them close.

"I'll miss you too. All of you too." It's amazing that it takes now for me to realize that I actually started to grow a relationship with the others. Isn't that crazy that I don't find out till now?

The kids finally let me up, so I could walk down the hall. This time all of the royal kids were accompanying me. I'm so glad that I wasn't doing this on my own. Sadly, when the walk came to an end when we got to the throne room, the sadness actually hit. I hugged everybody and then kissed Fang one more time.

"Good-bye." I open the doors and, it was full of older soldiers. All of them were looking at me like I was crazy.

"Hello, Maximum Ride." The king gestures for me to come over and join the others. The soldiers were not all females, which was something I wasn't used to. There were men and women here. It was so strange to be in the room and know I would fight alongside both. "Maximum, welcome! I hope you will enjoy your time here in the Army."

"Yes, your Highness." I stand alongside a young female that seemed about my age and looked at the king.

"Now, all of you should be well aware of the fact that our sister kingdom is starting to have confrontation with us. I want all of you to journey over and bring them this treaty. Deliver it to the king. Do not allow anyone else to have this." One of the older soldiers came from the crowd and took the golden scroll from the king and put it into a holster on his side.

"Your Highness, we will complete this task for you, but if there is conflict-"

"_If_ there is conflict, you have enough men to take down his army. I will send a wave of reinforcements for you, at least a day after you. That way, you will have a large supply with you. You won't have to be worry being behind on that."

"Thank you, Your Highness." The scroll soldier bowed and began to back away.

"Oh! Maximum, this is your supervisor. Vincent Blackwell." The soldier looked at me. He takes off his helmet and I actually saw black hair and red eyes. "Follow his orders, Max. He will make sure that you will stay alive." Vincent looks over me and takes his place on the other side of the room. "Well, I hope you all have a safe journey." Everybody bows down in unison, leaving me the obvious newbie. Wow. I quickly bow and look at the red floor.

I'm a warrior. I'm actually a Roman warrior. This is really happening. This is amazing. I get up with the others and follow as they file out of the room. Originally, I expected to find Fang and the others outside, but they weren't. I sigh. So much for that. We all leave out the front door and come to a set of the carriages outside.

"We've got horses!" The entire crowd looked at me.

"Yeah. The king cares a little bit. It's a long trip." I turn to this girl with blond hair and sky blue eyes. She smiles at me. "It's really nice of him to do that." As we get on board, I take my seat by her. "My name is Journey. Nice to meet you, Max." I shake her hand.

"Nice to meet you." I could already she was going to someone I could hang around, but still I couldn't help but look outside the window. Who knows when I'll come back here? The sun finally began to show up and shine on the ocean. I just hope I do.

**Hey guys, sorry for the wait. I really hope you liked this chapter, I was pretty busy with projects. Can you believe that my teachers give me like three projects a week!? That is unbelievable. Anyway, please review! And thanks for reading.**


	11. Encounters

**Disclaimer: I don't own Maximum Ride. But I 'm not gonna lie, I wish I did.**

**Hey guys! It's been a while since I've updated, but I'm back again. I had to get some stuff done for school and I had a Christmas concert for choir. (Which was sooooo fun!) But I'll try to update more often. Here's another chapter. Enjoy!**

Max POV:

Hours passed as we traveled in the carriage. I saw morning slowly transfer over to the afternoon then something hit me. We've been out here for hours and we haven't done a damn thing! What the hell?! I turn over to Journey, who seemed preoccupied with a gold heart shaped locket.

"Uh, Journey?" She looked up. "How long are we going to be sitting here? I mean, how far is the kingdom?" Just then, she smiled at me.

"A while. Why? You're bored?" I don't even hesitate when I nod. It was pretty obvious that this grand Royal gladiator thing that I looked forward to was becoming a huge disappointment to me. I mean, if I knew that all we were going to do was sit around and wait till we got there, I would've honestly just stayed home. Or got out and walked. "Don't worry. We'll be there soon. We're making good time. Just wait." I shake my head. Journey was trying to reassure me, I could tell. But there was no way that was going to happen.

I fall back into my seat. Is this really what the gladiators do? The all mighty Royal Army? Riding in stupid chariots all day? Boy was I wrong.

"Hey Max?" I looked down at Journey to see her attention as back on that locket. "What made you want to become a gladiator? Was it a life choice? Were you forced?"

"Well, it's a long story."

"We've got time." She puts the chain back into her armor and looks at me. "Go ahead." I hesitate a second. "We'll be working together for a while. Don't you think it makes sense to learn a little about each other?" Hmmmm. Maybe she's right. "Unless, you want me to go first." I nod.

"Yeah. You go first."

"Alright then. Well, I was born in the Royal Kingdom and my parents were scholars for the king, which means I am rich. So, why become I warrior, you may ask?" She smiles. "Why I just simply just challenged the king's son? The current prince. The one you were all over before we left." My face flushes. Both at the fact that she saw Fang and I and also that she challenged him. I didn't really see him as a fighter like that. At least, not with girls.

"Wait! How did you-? When did you-? Where were you when we-?" Journey's laugh cuts me off.

"I see a lot of things."

"I see." Note to self: Keep an eye out for Journey. At ALL times.

"Well, as I was saying. I challenged his son and won. '

"You beat Fang?"

"Who?" I scramble to right myself.

"I mean, the prince." Journey smiles at my error.

"Fang, huh? Well, that name certainly fits him. But anyway,-"

"How?" This was some interesting stuff.

"Uh, Max?" A look of irritation that went over her face. "I understand that you really like Fang, but you've really got to stop cutting people off. It's rude." I sit back and pretend to zip my lips closed. "Thank you. Okay, I beat Fang because I just simply kicked his butt. When I did, the king made me warrior in the army. And just like that, I was here. But… it wasn't long after that happened that my parents ended up dying."

"How?" Journey looks back with that "Really, Max? Really!?" look. "Alright, no more. No more."

"They were murdered. We still don't know who it was, but we have one clue. There was a small piece of paper by their bodies. All it said was "Triumphant". Two years later, and I still don't know what that means." She begins to trace her finger over the locket.

"Is that from your parents?"

"No. This is from my fiancé. He in the Army as well, and he's in the same group; on the same mission. See?" She snaps the heart open to reveal a clean picture of herself in a silky, light blue dress with her hair in a long cascade of curls, and her face exposing a beautiful smile. On the other side, there was a picture of a young man in a dark cloak with dark red eyes and black hair.

"Oh, wait!" I look closely at the picture and think back at the guy at the throne room. That's when I put two and two together. "Is that Vincent?" Journey nods.

"Yes. We're going to be married in just three more months. I can't wait." It takes me a minute to realize this. Journey, all happy go lucky, seemed so….bright compared to Vincent. But what was I saying? I don't even know him, so an assumption really can't be made yet. Something tells me I am going to be learning more about him very soon.

"That sounds nice." As Journey proceeds to put the chain back into her armor, she asks me another question.

"So what about you?"

"What about me?"

"You and Fang? What about you two? Are you going to get married soon?" Another flush comes over.

"No! No! We only just started dating!" What gave her that idea!? Just where?

"Oh, I'm sorry. So, I guess that's enough about me? What about you? It's your turn." I sit up and take a breath.

"Alright." After I tell Journey about me that's when the carriage suddenly stops. I guess after being still for so long, I was itching for some action. I immediately jumped up with my sword raised, but instead of seeing some thieves or something on the other side; it was Vincent with an impassive expression.

"Lower you weapon, soldier." I slowly put my sword back in the case and take a step back. I don't know what it was, but there was something about him that actually….scared me.

"Vincent." Journey grabs his extended hand and has him help her down. There, they share a soft kiss and I feel that wave of happiness between them find its way all over me. Wow.

When they back away, Vincent puts his hand out for me. I take it cautiously like he was a disease or something. He helps me down and closes the door.

"Excuse me, sir." He looks down at me. He was a little taller than Fang. "Why're we stopping?"

"To stretch and check around. Everyone was getting a little anxious. Why? Don't tell me you prefer to keep going." I shake my head.

"No! This was a good call." He smiles. I'll admit, that caught me off guard. He really didn't seem like the type to just up and smile like that.

"You were bored too, huh?" I nod, still a little off. "Me too." I walk pass him to check out the scenery. We were on the side of a dirt road. There was a humongous forest off to the side and a scarce amount of bushes next to us.

"Soldiers!" The entire group turn around to face Vincent, who was perched up on the main carriage that I assume was his. "We will only be camping here for a short while! Meet back here when the bell chimes." A small man comes over with a huge bell and rings it. The loud booming gong bounced in my ears. "When you hear that, come back here."

With that said, he jumped down and grabbed Journey's hand and they left. Whereever they were going was none of my business.

"Well, we know where they're going?" I look back to a pair twins with blond hair and green eyes.

"Ha! Make her scream!" One yells.

"Disgusting." I mutter under my breath.

"What was that?" I didn't realize I had gotten myself so distracted that I couldn't notice those two get behind me.

"Hmmmm?" I turn around swiftly and face them head on.

"I said that was disgusting. You two talking about them like that." They looked at me like I was stupid.

"Well, don't act like you don't know what they're going to do." One of them said.

"Yeah. Who do you think you are talking about us like that?" It's when the other said that that I take a strong a stance and smirk.

"Well, I think I'm someone that could easily kick your ass. Both of you." When I said that, they become silent.

"Hey!" I look back and find another boy with a girl beside him, motion toward us. Well, I'm not sure if it was at me or the twins, so I stand still. At least, until he directly points me out as the scary looking blond with a nice ass.

"Uh what?" I say.

"Hey, I'm Trey." One of the twins says as they stand beside me.

"And I'm Troy. What's your name?" Uhhh, weren't they just speechless earlier.

"My name is Max." They both smile at me.

"Cool, well come on." They loop their arms in with mine and pull down the hill to the pair at the bottom. A twin pointed to the girl with long brown and green eyes. "This is our friend, Nina." Nina smiles and waves at me.

"Hi." The same twin points to the boy next to her, who has the same shade of green eyes but that his hair is black. "This guy is Nico." He winks at me and tries to smile flirtatiously at me. "This is Nina's idiot brother."

"Awww, don't say that." Nico leans forward and his smile grows bigger. "Especially to such a-" His yes move up and down, watching my body. "Beautiful woman." He leans in more. "So, Max, I'd like to know if you-"

"Sorry, I'm spoken already for." That seemed to shock everyone. Mostly Nico. He backed away with wide eyes.

"Wha- who-"

"The prince." That really seemed to get everyone. Even the twins backed away with pure surprise on their faces.

"You're with the prince." Nina put her hands on my shoulders and began to shake me vigorously. "You. Are. So. Lucky."

"Tell me about it." One twin said. "Gosh." While the others were stuck in their own confusion, I saw Nico writhing around in his own sorrow.

"Uhhh, is he going to be okay?" Nina nods, and putting her hands down.

"Yeah, he'll be fine."

"Hey!" Twin (my name for the twins) loops his arm in mine and does the same with Nina. "Let's explore the forest. We need a little exercise from that ride." And with that said, we begin the walk. But we barely get anywhere, before I look back at Nico.

"Uhhhh, is he going to be okay?" Nina looks back and shrugs.

"Yeah, he'll be fine." I turn around and I before I can even take another step, Nico actually crawls over here and grabs my leg like a three year old. First thought: This isn't happening. This really can't be happening. Second thought: Is this guy on something? Was there something in his drink? And third thought: THIS REALLY CAN'T BE HAPPENING.

"Uhhhhh-"

"Hey, Nico. Move it. You're holding us up." Twin moves in front of me and actually kicks Nico off my leg. Then he looks at me. "Excuse him." After that, we start walking again.

"Uhhhh, are they always like this?" She nods, looks at me, and smiles.

"Welcome to our merry band of idiots."

"Oh my god!"

BOOOOOOOM!

We all lock back as the huge inferno engulfs our carriages.

"Oh my-" Nina starts, but we all start running before she finishes. Just as the fire comes over with another large explosion, Vincent appears on the scene.

"Get back! Follow the others!" We look to the side and see the others running on the trail. "The fire is too big! Go!"

"But sir! What about you?!" Nico yells. Vincent points to the others.

"Go!" He says that and we all follow without question. Well, I know why he become our captain. He definably has control. We run until the crowd stops and I look back. Where is he?

"He'll be back." Twin says reading my mind. I nod.

"I hope so." I turn back to the others and sit on the side of the trail. There I run my fingers over the small bit of shrub here. I know I said that I wanted some action, but that was a little too much. I mean, carriages getting destroyed? Who does that? As a matter of fact, WHO DID do that that?

"Nina, how far are we from the kingdom?" She shakes her head.

"Still have a way to go." I sigh. Oh come on! This has got to be the most ironic thing that ever happened to me. First the carriages get blown up and our leader isn't even here. Great. Just great. I allow myself to fall into the lowest form you could find me in. I pull myself into a ball and look at the dirt. I wonder what Fang's doing? Then I look to the sky. I wonder if he's thinking about me. I look down. Maybe not. Maybe he thinks I already died. He probably thinks I'm somewhere waiting for death to come.

Wait! What am I thinking? Fang would never think like that about me? How did I even get on him? I blink several times before touching the grass again. I miss you. I miss him already. Another sigh comes.

"What're you doing, soldier?" I look up from the ground.

"Vincent?" He smiles and helps me up. "Don't tell me you thought I-"I quickly shake my head. Maybe too quickly.

"No! Of course not!" He smiles again before turning away.

"Alright then. Hey, we're going to camp out here tonight. So,-" Journey comes forward and hugs me.

"Are you alright?" I nod. "I'm sorry. That normally doesn't happen." I nod again. "Please get some sleep, sweetie." Then she leaves with Vincent.

"Max!" I turn to Nina and the others, motioning me over. "Come on!" I walk over and sit beside them.

"Oh my god." One twin lays on the ground and sighs. "That was something. That carriage ride really messed me up. I can't feel my legs." The other lays down.

"You never lied."

"Well, let's just get some sleep. That was enough action for me." Nico lays back and closes his eyes.

"I guess so. That run felt good though." Then Nina lies next to her brother. It's not long till I follow behind her and lay my head on the soft earth. I close my eyes, but I don't go to sleep. Instead, I just think. I wish I could tell Fang. My first day on the job as a warrior.

I readjust, so I'm between one of the twins and Nina. Well, I really hope that I can tell him. If I get back. No, when I get back. I relax my body and then sleep comes.

**Okay, that's it! I really hope you enjoyed the chapter. I will try to update soon.**


	12. Blackout

**Disclaimer: Maximum Ride is not mine. Sorry.**

Max POV:

The next morning, I got up and found nobody was here. Nico, Nina, the twins, the other soldiers, Vincent, Journey, everybody was gone.

"What the-?" I get to my feet and look around. "Hey!" Then I start to frantically run around. They couldn't have left me. Could they? No, they couldn't. That doesn't make sense. And besides, the king would be upset if something happened to me. And Fang. He'd be upset too. "Hey!" I yell again. "Where is everyone?"

"Max!" I look back and find one of the twins sticking his head out from the forest. "Max! Get over here!" It's when I look over the entire scenery I see a bunch of heads peeking out and looking at me. "Hurry! Come on!" The tone he had just oozed that no-nonsense feel so I quickly ran over to them.

"What's going on?" I murmur once I'm concealed by the bushes, which was really hard considering my height.

"We have spies, my dear." Nico pointed over to the top of the mountains that stood on the other side of the field we slept on the other night. There were actually two, maybe three small figures that barely seemed to get over the mountain's edge. "They were there last night." I thought over that for a second.

"Then why didn't they-?" Just then, something black shot from our side and hit one of the figures. Then another went down, and a third. So there were three of them. "Never mind." After a few seconds passed, Vincent was the first to step away from the cover with a bow and arrow strapped tightly to his back. Something about the way he looked made him look so…cool. I mean, he looked so…I can't ever describe it. He just looked amazing. I guess that what a leader really looks like.

"Troy, go up there and check. Trey, you go too."

"Yes sir." The twins dashed toward the mountain and just straight jumped to the top. Seriously. They didn't climb, just jumped like twenty feet into the air.

"What the-?"

"Everyone come out." When the others began to file out of the bushes, I stayed; still in awe. "Maximum, come on." The tone in Vincent's voice still proved that he wasn't in the mood for my nonsense. Even though, I felt like this was a really surprising thing to see. So, like a good soldier, I crawl out from my little spot.

"Uh, yes sir." By then, the twins were back.

"Sir, the spies have been taken care of. ," one said.

"Yes sir. Great aim." Vincent nodded, and motioned for us to follow him back to the road. This was so confusing. Why didn't they just attack us last night? I mean, we were wide open for an attack because we were all asleep. I mean, when your enemy's asleep is the best time to strike. At least, it is in my book. I'm not too sure how things work in the army yet. Hmmm. Looks like this is gonna have more surprises than I thought.

When we get back to the road, Vincent brings us all in for a group huddle. The twins, Nico, and Nina stayed close to me.

"Alright, as you all know, we were infiltrated last night. Spies from our sister kingdom have already begun to believe that we are trying to ambush them. They already believe that war is among us, and there is no way to stop it." The silence seems to dwell for a long time. War? Now? But wasn't that the reason we were put on this mission? So there wouldn't be a war? What the heck is going on? Vincent looks over our shocked, impassive, and confused faces. I wonder….

"Sir?" He looks at me.

"Yes, soldier."

"I have a question."

"Then, please go."

"It's about them thinking about war. How is this possible? How could they have gotten the idea of war if that is the reason we are being sent out. I mean, that is the meaning of our mission, right? To deliver the treaty?" He nods.

"You are correct."

"Then, what has changed? The king said we were in a confrontation with them. He didn't say anything about a war."

"Yes. None of us were informed of the severity of the situation until now when I was given this." Vincent pulls a scroll from his armor and holds it out for all of us to see. "This was delivered to us last night after the bombing of our carriages via messenger owl. " Another silence loomed over us. "I am sure many of you are thinking why didn't I say anything last night, well, as the captain, I must take many precautions before accepting mail from unknown sources."

"But, sir, wasn't it the king's owl that sent it?"

"Yes. At first, I was willing to open the letter, until I realized that the king's seal was not on it. So, of course, that raised some suspicions as to whether I should open it or not. Because for all we know, it would have been a random letter with a bomb, but then I thought back to the fact that the king's owl sent it and it wouldn't serve anyone except him or the Army's captains. After some thought, I did look into it and found this." When Vincent opened the scroll for us, everyone gasped. Even me. Written in the king's hand was a warning that our sister kingdom was looking forward to a war and that we should hurry, but that wasn't all. After the warning was placed, below it was a huge red splat. At first, my thoughts were of spilled red wine, but the brownish, red color that it took as it dried on the paper made me think otherwise. Blood. Underneath the splat, was another message, written in the rich blood.

"_Please hurry. There is no time to waste." _

Now we were speechless. Was the king…dead? No. He couldn't. But what could've happened to him? I force myself to look at the others and see their expressions. Troy and Trey's face were shielded perfectly by their hair; Nina was on the verge of tears with her eyes on the scroll, still. Surprisingly, Nico had the most impassive face out of all of us. I mean, if you didn't know better you would've thought that he was the most emotionless person in the world. Everyone else varied like I mentioned before: shock, confusion, and just plain nothing. Our king, the one we look to, was in danger and we couldn't even go back to see if he was okay. But it was obvious that he wasn't. Just what were we supposed to do now? It was already known that we couldn't go back, even though we all wanted too, but the king gave us an order and we have to follow that first. But how? How can we even continue when everyone might as well be hollow zombies of what they used to be? But we still have a job to do, and that's a priority. Somehow, I grabbed onto that concept pretty early on just by watching everyone. And hearing this news just ruined everyone.

"Everyone, I'm sure that this has shocked you, whether you are willing to show it or not, but I admit, that this caught me off guard as well. So, don't feel ashamed of your feelings." Vincent stopped, as if to give everyone a second to grasp what he said. "But, we all know that we have a mission. I'm sorry, that we have to put your feelings on hold. I know this is a lot to ask of you, but please, I need your support. Believe me, it's taking all I have not to turn back around and see him as well." Vincent stood up and looked over us. "But, when we all became soldiers, we took an oath, and in that oath, we said we would follow any order that the king bestow upon us. Putting all emotions aside, regardless of what happens. Right now, it's time to put that into effect now. Now please, everyone, will you stand beside me?"

The entire group stood up and bowed to Vincent. Everyone except me. An oath? What oath? I don't remember that at all? And by the sounds of it, it was really important. Not only that, it seems everyone here took it, when they became a soldier. Why didn't the king give me that? Did he forget? He couldn't have, because it seems that that oath made you go by the law of the soldier and I didn't hear about I until now. What's going on? I wanted to spring up and ask, but that would've made my position in the army a question. I prefer to keep this confusion and rage to myself. How could he not give me that oath?

"Ride?" I snap out of my thoughts and look at him. 'Are you not with us?" I quickly get up and then bow.

"I'm sorry, sir." A moment passes, before he speaks again.

"Well, I'm glad that I have everyone with me. Thank you." We raise up and join into a unison for

"You're welcome, sir." Vincent smiles again. When he does, it reminds me of when Fang would randomly smile and catch me off guard. Wait. His name bounces in my mind and I quickly put my hand over my mouth to hold back the scream. Fang! Oh my god! Fang! What could've happened to him?! If the king was in trouble, then- Please tell me he's okay. Before I know it, I'm leaning over with the air stuck in my throat. What if something happened to him? Fang. What if he-?

"Oh my god." I whisper.

"Max?" One of the twins puts his hand on my arm while the other got in front of me with concern on his face. "Max, what's wrong?!"

"Oh my god." I lose all power over my body and the nest thing I know, I'm falling forward. The ground comes closer, until it gets blocked by golden armor.

"Max!" That was Nico's voice. "Max, what's wrong?!"

"Fang." He picks me up so he can look at my face.

"What? Max, what's wrong with you?!"

"Fang, he's-" My eyes flicker before as the world begins to spin. Then it goes black.

**That's all for now. I'm sorry for taking a long time to update, but I've been pretty busy with drawing, writing, and making a manga. So please, understand, and thanks for reading. I will try to update soon. I will try. **


	13. Perfect Love

**Disclaimer: This is the place where I bravely say that I do not claim Maximum Ride, so with every single part of my body, I say that I do not own Maximum Ride.**

Max POV:

I wake up with the distinguishing feel of motion underneath me.

"Wha-?" First, I recognize the dirt. We were still on the trail. Then, I see the grass that grew on the sides. Next to come to was the sight of gold and the sound of jangling armor. "What the-?"

"You're up now?" I quickly look up and see Nico's sharp green eyes on me, piercing me. "How was your nap?" I blink a couple of times in confusion.

"What?"

"You passed out remember?" Yeah. I remember now. I think over everything before I blacked out. There were some spies on the mountain, Vincent called us in for a message from the king, and there was a warning in it: war was near. Our kingdom and our sister kingdom were going to war. War was coming. Just what we needed. And there was the splat of blood at the bottom. The color in its entirety burned deep into my mind; forcing me to remember and acknowledge it. After that, everyone was too shocked to do anything. It was obvious that our king was in trouble, yet we couldn't go back to save him. Then, the heartfelt speech Vincent gave to the soldiers, the speech about the oath they took, and after that…Fang.

"Fang."

"What?" Nico asked. Everything goes black after that. Fang. He's in trouble. He must be, and the king….the entire royal family must be trouble. But Fang. What happened to him? Is he hurt too? No. He can't be.

"Fang." He has to be okay. I said I would come back. I promised him I would come back. The first thing I would do was go see him, but this…what's going on?

"Max, are you okay? You're not going to pass out again, are you?" I look to Nico again and notice the deep concern that shined in his eyes. I then turn to the twins who walked right beside us with sad eyes on me. Nina, who was on the other side, watched me with relief. Did I really have them concerned? When my eyes fall on Nico, I nod.

"I'm fine. You can put me down now." He does so, but with very carefully, so in his words he wouldn't "break anything valuable on my gorgeous body". Well, it's nice that the weird, stupid Nico was back.

"Nico, remember she's the prince's girl." One of the twins said.

"Troy, how could I forget? She kept making that point for over and over again ever since we started back on this trip." Something in his voice reeked of jealousy. But why would Nico be jealous?

"What?" I ask. Everyone looks at me, but Nina is the one that speaks up.

"You kept saying the prince's name while you were asleep, Max." Oh. A blush burns up my face. That's a little embarrassing.

"I'm sorry." The twins loop their arms in mine with huge grins on their faces.

"Aww, Max, no worries!"

"Soldiers!" As soon as that voice booms, every action stops. And I mean every action. All of the soldiers stop and quickly look forward. My heart skipped when Vincent came through the crowd. His face looked….scary. That was the only way that I could describe his face. His eyes were squinted slightly and the way his eyebrows creased in made it obvious he was upset. When he made over to our little group, he stopped right in front of me. That in turn made him block the sun from my view, so everywhere the light would've made its beautiful light shine on me was taken over by the darkness that now loomed here in its place.

We stood there staring at each other for what felt like hours because that of that dark glare he was giving me. But, after what felt came short of an eternity, he finally spoke.

"I see you are well. How as your nap?" His voice sliced at me like a knife. And with every word, he cut deeper into me. I scrambled for the right words.

"It was fine, sir." It's then that his eyes begin to lighten up.

"There won't be any more of those will there, soldier?" I shake my head.

"No, sir." He nods.

"Good to know. But please be aware that now because of that you took up precious time; time we don't have. And I want you to travel up ahead with me, so I can keep a close eye on me." I wanted to speak up against what his accusation, but there was something in Vincent's eyes that said "Don't talk back. Just go along with it." I'm not sure what it was, but the way his eyes intensified, I just decided to play along.

"Yes sir." He nods, and leads the way back to the front of our group. The soldiers that looked at me seemed more aggravated than relieved to see me. That wasn't too surprising though. I was already aware that they either didn't care too much about me or hadn't thought much of me, except for the fact that I was a soldier and was entrusted with the same mission that they were.

We made it to the front. That's where I see Journey. I hadn't seen her in a while. The last time I saw her was before the carriages were destroyed. I was about to say her name, but when I saw her face, I quickly swallowed it. One of her crystal blue eyes was covered by a dark piece of cloth that was tied securely around her head. I stopped right next to her and tried REALLY hard not to turn my head every five seconds to look at her. What happened to her? Was it from the carriages? It had to be. That must be why I hadn't seen her in a while.

Vincent takes his place in front of us, but he stays closer to Journey. She must be the reason for the real emotion in his speech earlier. That's why Vincent was so emotional. He actually had a reason to go back, besides for the king's safety. Not that it took more than that to make a soldier wanted to turn tail and head home.

"Soldiers!" Vincent's voice snaps me out of it. "We will be at the gates of our sister by nightfall." A few groans come from behind me. Nightfall?! We got that far?! How long was I out?!"That means that we will not be taking any more breaks." When he looks at me, I can't help but feel my head lower. "The sooner we get there, the sooner we return home. Now, march!" The order settles over all of us, and then we take one step at a time. Each step took us closer to our goal. And in a way, it brought me closer to Fang.

The sun scorched my skin, but for some reason, the armor didn't add to the heat that I was feeling. That didn't matter though, because this walk was becoming torture. Dang it! Why did they have to blow up the stupid carriages! We would've been there by now! But, no, some idiot just had to think "Hey, let's go after their carriages. Hee hee. They won't need em'. Ha Ha. This should be fun. Let's see how cool these soldiers think they are when they lose their ride. Ha ha ha!" BOOM! I hold back the swears as hard as I can.

"Max." I look at Vincent. I only noticed now that Vincent only calls me by my name when we're having a normal conversation like two equal individuals. Not captain to soldier.

"Yes?"

"What made you pass out earlier?" I quickly look to the back of his head and shake my head.

"Was it Fang?" Journey spoke up surprisingly. I throw a glance at her before quickly looking away again.

"Yes."

"I thought so." She smiled. That's when I take a shot and look at her. Her smile lightened up the rest of her face. It was just like the injury wasn't even there.

"Journey, what happened to you?" It was gone before I stop it. Vincent lost his beat for a second, but he quickly recovered in the next.

"Journey,-"he starts.

"Don't worry, Vincent. I can tell her." She looks at me with that smile still there. "It was back with the carriages." I was right. "I helped Vincent get some of the valuable supplies and I wasn't paying attention. A spear-like piece of the carriage fell and sliced over my eye."

"Journey, please-" I could hear the strain in Vincent's voice. "Do you need anything? Does the cloth need to be replaced?"

"No, Vincent. Thank you." He said nothing. That's when she walks forward and puts her arms around him, making him stop which made everyone else stop.

"Journey, please, we have to go." She squeezed tighter. "Journey, not now."

"Vincent, stop it." She looked up into his eyes and smiled again. "I know you feel bad."

"Yes, I do. But we have to go. We only have a few hours."

"I know." That's when she came on her toes and kissed his lips. "Just a little longer." They stay there for a while, until someone gibes an awkward cough. Vincent quickly remembers his job and gives an order to go. What is it about them? Their relationship is like light and dark. And it's perfect. They were made for each other.

The march feels longer and longer, and when the sun finally sets and the moon comes, I look forward. Are we almost there? I wanted to ask, but I hold back.

"Stop!" Vincent draws his sword and gives us a signal to do the same. "We're here. But there is someone else. It's an ambush." I look around, but the dark ruined my vision. Soon enough, there were heads and then shiny weapons. They came from the forest that surrounded us and exposed themselves. "Get ready, everyone."

**That's all for now. I hope you enjoyed this chapter.**


	14. Mission Complete

**Disclaimer: I don't own Maximum Ride. Short, sweet, and right to the point.**

Max POV:

I look over at the bodies and came to the realization that we were outnumbered. Maybe for every man we had they had three to cover him. This was not good.

"Vincent, we're outnumbered." I whispered. He nods in response and looks over our enemy.

"We will fight in sequence. This is only a challenge that we must surpass. We have come too far to quit now." Somehow, one of the twins came from behind me with a gold bow, arrow ready.

"I guess it's too late to say we come in peace, huh?" A smile comes over Vincent's lips. That's when he charges forward. The rest of us followed suit, but broke off in different directions, in different groups. I'm not too sure when those were set up, but I just stayed with Vincent and Journey and we went straight for a group of those soldiers.

My sword sliced through armor, and cut through the opposing wooden spears that dared to oppose me. Wow. This is amazing. Either my weapon is off the charts amazing or their armor is just terrible. I like the first option more.I cut down one of the soldiers in front of me by slicing his neck, as soon as he falls another comes from behind me with his sword raised high above his head. I quickly block with my shield and deflect him. After that, I bring my sword forward and pierce him through the stomach.

"Max!" I follow Vincent's voice and look back. He was surrounded by five soldiers. At first, I thought he was calling for help, but when I saw how he knocked all of them down with one swing of his sword I thought otherwise. "Max, turn around!" Three more of those soldiers were right behind me. One with a sword, another with a spear, and the last with a bow.

"I got it." I watched the archer closely as I charged them. His reach was what made him more of a challenge if it came to us being one on one. The swordsman was the first to meet me, there we clashed. He blocked my attacks from the body blows to the clear head shots. Then he got lucky and struck my side. First pain rushed through me, then anger came almost instantly. Did he just hit me?! Oh HELL no!

I bring my sword up and bring it down on his shoulder. He gave a cry of pain, brought his sword up for a counterattack, and missed. So, I just as quickly bring my sword up again and slice his chest. The spear user came over, but the archer was gone. Where was he? No matter. I have to get him first. I push the spear away from my face and push my sword through the slit in his helmet. Blood coated it on contact. Now the gold was stained. Oh well. Now where was that archer?

"Aggghh!" A sharp pain came to my shoulder. When I looked down the first thing I notice is a black arrow, now resembling the color of red thanks to my blood. "What the-?" I look around quickly for the archer that I missed before. Where did he go? I knew I should've kept my eye on him. Once I spot him a mere few feet away, readying a new arrow, I start to rage. I look around at the scattered bodies, either of my enemies or my allies, and to my luck, spot a discarded bow. I rush for it, wrap my hand around the arrow, and quickly yank it from my shoulder. There was hardly any pain from the removal, since I'm been shot before. There was a technique to removing these things when in battle. I spot my target again and reassemble the arrow.

"Hmph. Thanks for the arrow, but you can have this back." Then I let go. It soared through the air with sharp accuracy. Needless to say, it found his skull with no problem. A small rush of victory hits me when I see him fall, but that turns bittersweet very quickly because the next thing I know, a distinctive cry snaps me out of it.

"Ahhhh!"

"Nico!" He was on the ground with three soldiers stabbing him with his sword. "Nico!" I quickly ran over and, unsurprisingly, Nina was here a spear of her own. Her face was covered in blood that I prayed wasn't hers, her eyes were fueled by anger, and her spear was everywhere. The two soldiers that were closest to her went down instantly from decapitation. The third seemed confused as to what he should do. Run? Or fight this angered girl?

"Die!" And after seeing his allies fall, he still thought he could take Nina on. He raised his sword to strike, but was cut short by his mid-section being sliced in half. Then, she actually stood over him and started stabbing him continuously. Whoa. I'll admit Nina kind of scared me right then.

"Uh, Nina?" She stopped to look at me. Her green eyes scaled over me for a second, before she lowered her weapon. She was still being fueled by her anger.

"Max, how is he?" I look down at Nico and quickly get to his side. His armor did a good job of blocking against the attacks, but there was still a lot of damage to his chest. The golden armor was still stained with red.

"I'm not a doctor, but he's hurt pretty bad." That's when Nina occupied the other side of him.

"Max, cover us." She put her hands on his chest and searched for the source of the huge blood flow. When she did, she quickly pushed her fingers into it, while she looked around for a makeshift bandage. "Nico, it's gonna be okay. Just stay calm."

"N-Nina." His voice was strained so much; I could barely make out what he was saying.

"Shhh. Just be quiet." She was near tears now. Oh no. How much more? I look over the battlefield and see that the enemy had been dwindled down to only a small few. Many of them were scattered over the ground, but the soldiers I saw that belonged to us made my heart drop. I looked back to the twins and saw they had four soldiers going against them. One had two to himself. Both had their bows on their backs. To replace them, they used a sword. They stood back to back with huge grins on their faces. It seemed like they said something before going after the soldiers and coming out as victors. Whoa.

"Max, look out!" I turn around to see a single soldier coming over with a spiked hammer. He brought it down and just barely hit me. I take my sword to his chest, but I hear a loud "clank". Uh oh. He looks at me and through that helmet, I could see that smile aimed right at me. When he brings the hammer down again, it slams right against my head. I fall to the ground and taste blood. The warm liquid covers my face, also ruining my vision. But that didn't cover the image of the man that stood over me with a huge smile and a spiked hammer my head. I grab my sword and block from the attack he launches. That didn't do very well. He only slammed it to my chest and knocked the air out of my chest. I strain to look at him, but the blood was already making that harder. Oh no. Don't tell I meet my end this way. No. This can't be it. I can't die this way. What about Fang? Everyone is waiting for me to comeback. This can't happen. This can't be happening. I struggle to grab my sword again. That's when he brings the hammer up all over again.

"Max!" Vincent calls. When his voice falls over, I make out his figure and see him strike the hammer man. Journey's blond hair joins in and she takes her hits. I push away when I see him struggle to keep his footing against the both of them. Then as if it wasn't bad enough for him, the twins and some more of our soldiers joined in. Blood, and screams of pain came all over the place. I wanted to get up, but whenever I did my body quickly shut down and told me otherwise.

"Dang it!" I try to get up again, but by then the hammer man was on his knees and soon enough was on his chest. Dead. "Ugh!" I fell back again. I missed the whole thing.

"Max." I look over at one of the twins. "We did it. Come on." He picks me up and that bright smile he gives me makes me feel pretty bad about not being able to return it. My face was in too much pain.

"Yay." I say bitterly. His smile gets bigger.

"Let's go." I look over the battlefield again. We were victorious. Yes. My first fight in the Royal Army and we won. That's something I should definitely write in my diary. Ha, yeah right. Vincent, Journey, the other twin, Nina, and several other soldiers, one carrying Nico come over. We were all injured. Vincent's arm was bleeding and Journey was in her current condition with her eye. Twin was cut, but still smiling.

"Sir, what do we do now?" he asks. Vincent looks over to the gates that now stood before us.

"We go complete our mission." We all follow him in no specific formation. "Finally." Vincent slams his hand over the door, before noticing the two large soldiers standing guard. Did they see us fighting? "We were sent from the west. We have a mission from our king." They look over us. Vincent pulls the scroll from his armor and shows the seal. I guess that's all it takes, because they let us in.

Bright lights burn my eyes. The beauty of the kingdom was scorched by the pain I was feeling.

"Come on." Vincent points out the castle and we follow. People looked at us like were crazy. Cant blame them though. Two more soldiers stood guard and again, Vincent had to do the scroll thing. When the large doors bearing the insignia of a lion open, we creep in. Gold was everywhere. The floor, walls, ceiling, everything.

"Oh!" I look up to the staircase and see a young man at the top. His hair was blonde, and his eyes seemed like a deep sea of blue. They were gorgeous. But, judging by the fancy robe he wore, I knew who he was.

"Father?" An older man came from behind him, sees us, and starts smiling. "Is that-?"

"Ahhhhh! The Army!" He comes down the stairs. "Vincent!" He takes Vincent's hand and shakes it. "How have you been?"

"You Highness, we have a message from our king. You must-"

"Oh!" The king sees his injuries, and then quickly looks at us. "You need help." He claps his hands and servants suddenly appear.

"Your Highness! You must see this!"

"After you are taken care of. Believe me, our medics are the best in the land." They moved like a blur; taking our soldiers and taking them away. Doctors came quickly and took us.

"Your Highness, this a treaty! You must read this!" The king looks at Vincent and takes the scroll he extends to him.

"Ahhhhh! But, treaty or no treaty, you are our guests now. We will take care of you, until all of you are okay." Vincent was confused.

"But-"

"I am but a humble man. War or not. That can be put aside until you are all well." Whoa. He is really…cool about this.

"Your Highness-"

"Vincent, you are a great captain. We will discuss this later. Now take him." Another doctor grabs Vincent and Journey. This is happening so fast. Is he really letting us stay here? The king looks at me and Twin. "Follow them, please." We head after the servant.

"The king is a good man. We are good hands." Twin says. But I wasn't paying attention to him, because I was caught off guard by the deep blue eyes that followed us out of the room.

**Okay, this is all for now. Hope you enjoyed.**


	15. Meeting the Prince

**Disclaimer: Maximum Ride is not mine.**

Max POV:

When I'm taken to my own room and was put into bed, the last thing I expected to get was sleep. I mean, I was in my first fight with the Royal Army, which we won, and I'm in a new kingdom. How could I sleep on that? How could ANYONE sleep on that? This was amazing! I can't just sit here!

I try to sit up, but after a few seconds of that, I became dizzy and quickly fell back. Well, so much for that. I sink back into the bed and look around. The walls were white, the floor was white, the bed sheets were white, everything was white. Well, at least they gave the gold from the foyer a break. I look to my shoulder and see a few bandages covering it. There was a little color to them, so I guess that there was some blood there.

"Ohhhh." When I put my hand to my head, the first thing I feel is a knot. Then, the strange feel of bandages welcomed me. With slow fingers, I feel them go all around my head, including my forehead. Oh great. Hammer boy took more out me than I thought. I put my head down by my side and stare intently at the ceiling. Now what? Oh yeah, I have to rest. I'm guessing that's what they would've expected me to do. Sadly, the closet I'll ever get to rest is just staying in this one spot. There was no way I was going to actually get some sleep anytime soon.

I sigh. So, that leaves a lot of time to think. I wonder when the king plans on giving me that oath, since it didn't seem important enough to be given to me. Hmmm. I wonder what it says. Even though, Vincent basically gave me a sneak peek as to it being about how we would protect the king but, whatever order he gave us came first, before any emotions. It feels weird now. I mean, at first it felt nice being a part of the Royal Army, but now that part where all the happiness was stored was now…empty. It kind of feels like I never actually joined the army now. I mean, being around everybody, knowing that I didn't take that pledge makes me feel out of sync with the others. I wonder if anyone else knows. I hope not.

Another sigh gets pass my lips. Not to mention, what am I supposed to do if somebody really does find out that I didn't take that oath? What would they do? The worse they could do is release me from the Army. I hope. What if they kill people for this kind of thing? Oh no. What if this indirect treason? What if they think because I didn't take the oath, I'm just stupid gladiator that just wandered in because she's the prince's girlfriend? What IF that's the reason? What if that's the reason the king even asked me to join? No. He asked me to come because of my fine skill. I need to keep those type of thoughts out my head. That's not gonna help with the current situation, which is me getting better and getting back home to talk to the king about this little oath that he forget to give me. After, I find out if he's okay.

That blood splat that was at the bottom of the message he sent us came back to mind. I wonder what happened. I really wonder of he's okay. After a few minutes of lying there and thinking over the possible things that could've happened to keep me from thinking the worst like the spilled wine I mentioned earlier to maybe he was doing something dirty and got a nosebleed all over the scroll, I just moved on from that topic completely.

"I wonder what Fang's doing right now?" Yeah. Thinking about him should help ease my nerves just a little bit. If just for a little, maybe, just maybe, I could try for sleep.

_*Knock* *Knock*_

Oh great. Who could that be at this hour? Whatever this hour may be.

The door creaks open slowly without my giving approval to the stranger, but the person on the other side is not a stranger to me.

"Vincent?"

"Hey Max." He came in slowly before slowly closing the door behind him. "How are you feeling?" I try a nod, but that only makes my brain feel like it was bouncing against my skull. I wince. "Not very well, I see."

"Oh no. I'm actually feeling a lot better now. If you had come a few minutes, I would've gave you something to be worried about." He smiles.

"Good. I was just checking on everyone. That was a good fight, huh?"

"Yeah." My eyes quickly go to the bandage sling his arm was being held in. "How is your arm?" he looks down at it and merely shrugs the question off.

"Don't worry. I've been through worse."

"Oh. What about Journey?" That question made him stop. Maybe I should've waited before asking that. "I apologize."

"No. No need to worry. She'll be fine. The place where the spear hit her would leave a scar. The blood has been taken care of."

"That's good." A silence passes between us, before Vincent takes a step back.

"I'll be going. I hope you feel better soon."

"Thanks.'

"And Max, you did good in the fight." I thank him again.

"But, Vincent? That oath. It's a really important thing isn't it?" He nods.

"Look at it like a pass into the Army. Without that, you're not really a part of it. And without that, you're just a like, a…volunteer. Your mind is the right place, but your position is bad. Only the elite are meant to be in the Army. So, say, you're not an official soldier, you're taking up room for someone who could really be needed by us; the king. Basically, you're more like a good hearted fool who got into something that wasn't meant for you." Hmmmm.

"So what happens if you find out that someone didn't take the oath was in the Army?" He smiled. Oh no.

"Easy. We take them back to the king and have him do what he will with them."

"So this has happened before?" He nods. "What happened them?"

"I was never told. Just that they were never seen again." I gulp loudly. "Why?" I shake my head, quickly regretting it.

"Nothing. I was just curious." Vincent looks at me with confusion over his face. I tried my best to give my face as straight as possible, but it was so hard. When those eyes burned into mine, I knew I was on the verge on snapping. But they left.

"Okay then. Good-bye, Max." He turns away and opens the door. On the other side, the young man from before with the beautiful blue eyes was there. "Oh! Hello, Your Majesty." So he is royalty. The prince.

"Hello Vincent." He gives Vincent a bright, clean smile. Wow. "It's a pleasure to see you again. How is your arm?"

"It's fine." The smile disappears, and is replaced by a kind grin.

"Great. I was wondering if I could come in. I would like to speak to that soldier." Vincent looks back at me.

"Ahh. Sure, but let me tell you now, that she is already spoken for." A look of confusion passes over the prince's face. "Well, then good night, Your Majesty." Vincent leaves the room. That left me and the prince standing there with nothing but an awkward silence between us.

"Well, that was…. Strange." He says. He makes his way over and takes a seat by the bed. "Hello." I just stared at him. What was he doing here? WHY was he even here? But as I stared at him I could feel myself falling victim to those deep blue eyes. They were so beautiful. "How is your injury?" That smile he used on Vincent came back, but it was even more powerful. Then he winked. Oh no. How do I fight that? Wait, I know a way. I turn away and push the infernal blush down. Where did that come from?!

"I'm fine. Your Majesty, why are you here?" I heard him shift on the chair and felt something lower on the bed.

"I was just wondering how you were."

"Why?" I make the mistake of turning over. Guess where he was? Before he was a good two feet away from my personal space, but when I turn over, he is right in my face. The blush from before was back, and even stronger. There was hardly enough space. Then I could feel him breathe on me.

"Hello." I scream. When I do, I push away and before I know it, I'm on the edge of the bed. And after that, I was falling. Oops. I put my hand out to catch myself for when I fell, but the prince caught. No, he is a pervert. That man is a pervert. But when he had my arm, he quickly pulled me back to my bed and smiled at me.

"I'm sorry I scared you. How are you?" I just stare at him again. "Your face is red."

"I know!" I was so mad, that I wasn't even worried about the fact that I just yelled at the prince. He deserves it. "Your Majesty, you-" I cover my face.

"Dylan. My name is Dylan." I look at him through my fingers before pulling my hands down. "Please call me Dylan."

"Huh?"

"my name is Dylan. Please call me that." I look away.

"Please go away." He laughs.

"Alright. I will be back tomorrow. Good night, uh, what is your name?"

"Go away!" He laughs again. The door closes slowly. What is wrong with him? I have never met someone so annoying! And I've never reacted in such a way to anyone! Oh man! This terrible!

**And that is the end! I hope you liked this chapter! Now Dylan is here.**


	16. I Can Wait To Be King

**Disclaimer: I disclaim Maximum Ride.**

Fang POV:

The sun rose up slowly, spreading its light over the kingdom. Its light went over the town first, cloaking it in light. Then, there was the castle. It kind of burned though. But the last place to get hit by the light was the barracks that stood nearby the castle. Before I know it, a sigh passes through my lips. Ever since Max left, not one day has passed that I haven't found myself thinking about her. I wonder how she is. Is she okay? Has the Army accepted her? Have they already made it to the kingdom yet and are they on their way back? I sigh again.

"Damn." It's only been a few days and I already feel like I'm going through withdrawals. This is terrible. I rest on the stone balcony and take another second to look over everything. It's not too long after I start doing that that I see Max standing next to me. That night I couldn't sleep because I was constantly thinking about the fact that she was in my home, staying the night. For that one night, we were in the same house. And it only took that one night to see pass the gladiator I've always seen her in and see the Max underneath. She was beautiful in armor or dress, had an attitude, wasn't afraid to speak her mind, and really funny. I think back to when she found out Iggy was blind. She's definitely amusing. Hmmmm. I wonder where they are. I swear, if they're at the kingdom and that bastard is going after her, I will-

"Ah! Fang!" I look back to see my father, with his arms out and a huge smile on his face. "Good morning, son! How did you sleep?!" How can someone be so happy first thing in the morning? I'll never know. I stand up straight and look at the red cloth that he held in one of his hands.

"How are feeling?" His smile quickly disappeared. Instead his mouth was gaping open and he was squinting slightly. Like he was mad that he asked. Well, that certainly extinguished his little bit of sunshine.

"Fang." He put his arms down, closed his mouth, and started making his way over to me. "You really need to be thinking about other things besides my condition." When he stops next to me, he quickly covers his mouth to release a disturbing, hacking cough. The sound of it sent a chill down my spine. It was like his insides were just going to come spewing out all over the stone.

"My gods, are you dying?!" That's when he stopped.

"Fang, you should be more worried about becoming king, because I think you do know what's going on." He pulls the cloth back and shows me the blood that stained it. Dark blood had spread over it, taking over. He must have seen me looking because he looked at the blood and nodded. "Ay. It's bad."

"Father, have they found the causes of this?" He shook his head.

"No. But it's been made official that the gods are calling me home. My time here is limited. Which means, my throne will be passed on to someone else." It was obvious that "someone else" was me. I'm the only one that could actually take the throne, since I'm of pure royal blood. That's why Iggy, who is the same age as me couldn't actually take the throne. Unless…

"But Father, what if I don't take the throne. What if something happens to me? What if Iggy did? He knows the kingdom almost as well as I do. He would be perfect. I mean, he would be a better choice than I would. We are both compassionate, are willing to put the ones we love first, and can stand up for the ones we love. But there is something about him. Iggy has something about him that makes people like him. He would do better than me."

"Fang, I know, but just as you said, he ALMOST knows the kingdom like you do. But he doesn't know everything that you do. He doesn't know everything about the kingdom. Iggy could never take the place of the throne."

"Why?"

"You know why, Fang?"

"Because of the royal blood line?" He nods. "Father, just because Iggy doesn't have a drop of royal blood doesn't mean anything. Is blood really that important? He cares for people. What can't he just take the throne? He is as much of a son to you as I am. Those are your words." That's when he raised his hand to silence me.

"Fang, I do see Iggy as my son. In fact, he is my son. But if I gave Iggy the throne without any proof of his royal lineage, it would be like I just picked a stranger from the crowd and told him to take his place on the throne."

"Iggy is not a stranger, though. He could do it. He can take care of the kingdom. And what about him? You have him and the others staying in the palace in secret. Are you just gonna have them live in hiding forever?" I stood beside him and watched his eyes travel down to the ground. "Why don't you just tell everyone about them if they are like your children? You certainly did it with me and Alesia with no problem. Why can't you do it now?" He still wouldn't look at me. "Is it really because of our blood line? Because they don't have royal blood?" There still wasn't answer. For some reason, anger just shot through me. "Answer me."

"Fang, it sounds like you are trying to avoid being king by imposing this on Iggy." He looks at me with this dark look. I didn't see that coming. This conversation wasn't even supposed to steer into that direction. "Is that what you are doing?" I shake my head.

"No. I'm giving you options. There is more than just me that could take the throne."

"And you believe that Iggy could do a good job?"

"Excellent job. I know he can do it." He looks back to the ground and sighs loudly.

"Fang, this is the most I have ever say in a while. When did you become such a chatterbox?" When that large smile spreads over his lips, the strange tension that once existed between us vanished without a trace.

I don't answer; only stare at him.

"Hmmmm. Well, I am going to take what you said into consideration. We'll have to see what Iggy thinks of us deciding his future for him." And he leaves. The sun shines right on my eyes, making me cover them. What just happened?

"Iggy!" I turn around and head downstairs and go straight for Iggy's room. His door was wide open. I slowly walk in.

"Hello Fang." That's when he sits up. "Are we against knocking now?" His sightless eyes follow the sound of my footsteps all the way to his bed.

"Iggy, I think I did something wrong." He tilts his head to the side in confusion.

"What?! Did you have an affair behind Max's back?" He sighed. "I knew you were lonely but-"

"No! Never! I could never do that to Max."

"Then what is it?" Before I know it, my head lowers in the face of shame. This is where I thank the gods for Iggy being blind. This is the last thing I'd want people to see me doing. Prince Fang wallowing in his shame.

"I-Do you want to take on the throne?" Seconds that felt like minutes passed. That whole time he just looked down with this thought provoking look on his face. It was agony. My anxiety went up more and more, the longer he thought. Then right when I felt I was going to probably snap and demand his answer, he finally spoke.

"I can't say. I never put too much thought into it because I never saw the king asking me, because of the royal blood thing." I looked down again. "Why?"

"Well, how would you feel if I said that I might have talked Father into making you king?" My first thought was that he would be angry, but he wasn't. Just confused.

"What are you talking about?"

"I mean, I was upstairs talking to Father and because of his condition he is looking at me to taka the throne. I gave him the option of choosing you; because of the fact that you are like a son to him and that you could take care of the kingdom with no problem."

"But you're the prince, Fang. That wouldn't make sense to make me; an adopt that no one knows about to mysteriously appear and take his place as king."

"I was afraid you were going to say that."

"Then why would you even ask Father about that? Are you scared? To become king?"

"No!" I quickly jump up and turn to him. "That is NOT the reason!"

"Then why Fang?" He laid back.

"Because I want to help you. Father used to boast about me and Alesia. Why can't he do it with you? And others? Why must you be in hiding?" Iggy had gotten up again and grabbed my shoulder.

"Fang, even if I were to be put up for the throne, I would never be chosen because I don't have royal blood. Wherever you look at it, you will be king. You just need help." I looked into his eyes. "Fang, I'm here for you. All of us. You may not admit it, but you're nervous about being king. We are all here to help you. Don't worry." I let a grin come.

"Thanks Iggy." He nods and smiles back at me.

"No problem. Now, about Max going to that kingdom. Do you think that he'll try to go after her?" My grin disappears.

"I will kill him."

**That's all for now.**


	17. You Have Options

**Disclaimer: I don't own Maximum Ride.**

Max POV:

The next morning I wake up to the sun's rays coming over and burning me. Ugh. This wasn't the best way to welcome in the day. That's if I was actually going to welcome it. I think back to last night to that pervert of a prince, Dylan. What is wrong with him? Does he not know the meaning of personal space or that I really didn't want him around me? Why was he even here last night?

"_I just wanted to see how you were."_ Hmph. Yeah right. I turn on my side and look at the wall. I wonder how everyone's doing. A sigh comes. I hope we're gonna be leaving soon. An image of that psycho's face comes to mind. If that'll get me away from me. But those eyes. What is it about them? Just what is it about them?

No. I shake my head a bunch of times to get rid of that thought. I don't have the time or drive to think about that. I'm more worried on when I'm going to be back home and see everyone. Even Lissa. I kind of miss her. Wow. Never thought I would ever say that. But it's not just her I really miss. Fang and the others are waiting for me. I have to get back to them. But first, I have to be sure that my injuries are better. First I try my arm. I move it around in an awkward way because of the bandages, but there wasn't any pain except for a tiny ping. That's okay. Now there was my head. This was what I was dreading since the last time I tried moving my head when Vincent was here it felt like my brain was bouncing like a ball.

I feel the bandages. The knot was still there, but it had really shrunk. Sadly, I wasn't going by the size of a knot. I was going by whether I could sit up for more than five seconds before wanting to run back to the pillow. I get up slowly, close my eyes, and put my hand to my head to steady myself. I was all ready for the pain. When I'm up and remove it, I was happy to find out that the wooziness that came with moving my head didn't come. Yes!

"Good morning." No. No! No! No! Please no! WHY is he here?! I slowly open my eyes, praying that the voice I heard was all just a trick of the mind and that he really wasn't here. But of course, when my eyes are open the first things I see are blue eyes. The deep blue color captivated me; drawing me in. He smiled. "How did you sleep?" I scream again.

"What the hell are you doing here!? Get out!" I quickly grab the pillow and throw it at him. It made a straight shot for his face. "Go!" He starts laughing and pushes the pillow away.

"Well, good morning to you too. I came to bring you breakfast." That's when I notice the tray of food he pushes toward me. It had all kinds of royal foods on it. I remember them at the royal dinner earlier. "Is there something you don't like?" He must have seen me looking at it.

"No. It looks great." I see that smile get bigger. Oh! I get it now! He couldn't get me with his so-called charm, so now he's going to get me with the one thing I couldn't resist. He's getting to me through my stomach. And judging by that smug look, he already knows he's got me.

"Well, this is for you."

"Thanks." I take one of the biscuits and bite. It was really sweet. I guess it's needless to say that I lost to the food. Sorry. He sits there looking at me. "Um, do you need something?" He moves over the tray and smiles.

"Let me give you a tour of my kingdom. Please." I take another bite of the biscuit. "I at least want you to see it before you leave."

"Why?"

"Because your friends are all better. At least, enough to make the trip back. And I have to say, for being here one night; you've done nothing but intrigue me."

"Well, I would like to know what I did to make that since all I really did was yell and throw a pillow at you." His smile get bigger.

"And even with that in mind, I still want to know more about you. Um, your name, please?" I shake my head.

"Nice try. I'm already spoken for, remember?"

"I know. That's why we're not going by ourselves. I asked my father and your commander and they both agreed that the Royal Army should take a tour of our beautiful kingdom." I can feel my eyes widen. "So, that means that you have to go."

"Not if I don't want to." He shakes his finger to prove otherwise.

"I don't think so."

"What do you me-?" A knock comes and the door slowly opens. It was Nico. The only thing that covered his chest were the many bandages wrapped around him. At first, he looked shocked to see the prince, but when he saw me it went away.

"Hey Max."

"Hi. How are you feeling?" He looks down at his chest and shakes his head.

"I'm doing better." Nico looks like he wants to say something else, but he doesn't. "Vincent wants us to meet him in the foyer. We're going to be going on this tour of the kingdom. This is an order. Be dressed." Then he leaves. I wonder what's wrong with him. Besides, the injuries. The prince looks back at me with a smile.

"So, your name is Max."

"Quiet."

"That sounds kind of boyish in a way. Is it short for Maxine?"

"No. It's Maximum. Got it?" He nods. "Good. Don't forget it."

"Oh. I won't." I cringe. "Well, look at that. Right on time. Now you have to come. This is an order." He mocks Vincent at the end. Great. "I'll see you later, Max." That's when he leaves. Agggghhh! I want to go home! Not on some stupid tour! Especially not with _him. _It's like Vincent did this just to aggravate me.

"Agggghhhh!" But what can I do? I get up and try my arm again. Then I look at the food and smile. Well, if Vincent's going to make me do this, I'm pretty sure he can wait a little longer. When I'm done with my meal, I finally leave and make my way back down the familiar path. Mostly because I could hear the others yelling. That's how I really got there. Everyone was dressed in their armor and bandages. The thing that really caught me was the small number he had now. Our numbers were probably half of what they were before we left.

"Max, you're okay." The twins came and gave me a hug. Both had small scratches on their face. I have no idea how they got out of that with just a few scratches. That is amazing.

"Yeah. I see you two are okay."

"Max!" Nina comes from the crowd and hugs me. "It's great to see you're alright. Thank you for helping me with Nico."

"Sure." I look around for Nico and see him, sitting in the corner with his eyes on the ground. "Um, what's wrong with him?" She shakes her head.

"I'm not sure. He won't tell me." I look to Nina and ask if I could. "You can try." I make my way over to Nico's side and see the solemn expression on his face.

"Hey, what's wrong?" He shakes his head. "Come on. You can tell me."

"Nina already tried, Max. You don't have to force yourself."

"I'm not. I really want to know what's wrong." He looks up to the crowd.

"Well, not now. I don't feel like talking. Sorry." I nod.

"Bye." I leave him and return back to the others. By then, Vincent had taken his place in front of all of us with his arm still in the sling. Journey was near him with a bandage over her eye.

"Soldiers!" The room was silenced. "We have been through a very intense battle. There were many of us that died, but they died valiantly. Besides that, we came out victorious, and I congratulate all of you." Everyone cheered loudly.

"Woooo!" The twins said. When Vincent raised his hand, everyone stopped and gave him his attention again.

"The king read the treaty and with this." He raises a golden scroll. "This will stop any more threat of a war. The war is over." The silence stayed longer. That's when Vincent puts the scroll away. "I know that all of you are ready to go home, but the king and I agreed that, because of the journey we took to get here and the soldiers that we lost, we deserve something nice before we leave. So, we agreed on a tour of the kingdom." Vincent looked at us, probably awaiting an answer, but we stay silent. "We will leave right after this meeting. Do any of you have questions?" There was a silence. "Alright then. Follow me." We all file in behind Vincent as he leaves the foyer and out the front door.

I think back to the prince and what he said about asking his father and Vincent if this was okay. Why did he have to suggest this? I want to go home! But….this could be nice. I look over the crowd for him. He said he was going to be here. But I don't see him. I smile. Oh yes. It will definitely be nice now. When we're outside, several carriages with expensive looking horses waited for us.

"Wow."

"Impressed?" I nod at one of the twins. Then we get on one of the carriages and it started to move. The inside was amazing. There was probably enough room for all of us to just lay out straight and still have room. That's how large it was. And in the corner, there was wine of all kinds. Even ones I never heard of.

"Nice." One of the twins takes a jug and admires it.

"Try not to get drunk, would you? I'm not carrying you back home." The other says. He looks at his brother and smiles.

"Troy, there is no need to worry. I'm not getting any until we get home." I turn to Nina, who was preoccupied at one of the building we were passing.

"This is amazing! Nico, look!" But he didn't move. He just looked at the floor. "Nico." She moves next to him and whispers some words to him. His reaction was a mere shrug and a few words. Nina gives him a hug before kissing his cheek and returning to the window to admire the sights. I wonder what's wrong with him. By now, we were passing a large fountain with crystal blue water. Our whole carriage was full of awe. It was so beautiful. Something like this, something so beautiful, was a rare sight for me. So, I absorbed it completely.

Then the carriage stopped. Trey, who still clutched the wine, pushed the door open. Sunlight hit all of us.

"Wow! Come on, everyone!" The twins were the first to get out. Nina was next, then me, and afterwards Nico. I see the solemn look from before was still there and even more intense.

"What is it?" He shakes his head. "There's something."

"I'm sorry, Max, but it's personal."

"Oh." I look away. "Sorry about that."

"Don't worry. Come on. Let's get to the others." We all meet in front of the crystal fountain. Small little birds gathered around us, looking at us. All were pure white.

"Doves?" Nico looks down at them and nods. "They're so beautiful." I walk over and crouch in front of one. "I wish I had some food to give you." Suddenly, there were some golden crumbs thrown in front of me. The dove ate them hungrily, but I looked back quickly. Someone in a white cloak stood there with the hood enshrouding their face. "Who are you?" They put their hands up in surrender.

"I'm sorry. I didn't mean to frighten you." That voice. I know that voice. Oh no.

"Your Highness?" That annoying, yet musical laugh comes.

"I said to please call me Dylan." He pulls the back slightly. Just enough to show me his face. "Hello Max."

"What are you doing here?" He smiled.

"I did say I wanted to give you a tour. I'm here to keep my word." He playfully grabs my hand and pulls me away from the group.

"Hey! Hey! Let go!" But something about the way he laughs keeps me from punching him and running away before someone catches me. For some reason, I actually wanted to find out where he was going to take me. "Dylan, where are you taking me?" He didn't say anything. "Dylan?"

"Here we are." We stop in front of a huge ocean. Sunlight danced crystals on the surface. "Come on." He brings me to a small boat and helps me in. He climbs in and pushes us from the shore. With an oar in hand, he pushes us slowly through the water.

"What is this for?" I say after I notice we are getting out of swimming distance. I calculated that just in case, I would have to make a hasty retreat after he pushed me to my limits and I hit him.

"This is way more fun than what you get with this others." I scowl at him. "No offense. See?" He points to a building out in the distance. A huge pointy tower was mostly all I could see, but that was a rainbow of colors. Wherever the sun shined, it made that color stand out. "That's the theater. My father used to take me there when I was a child. It's amazing that it still looks the same."

"Really?" He nods. Dylan pulls the hood off his head to reveal his blonde hair turned kind of like gold in the light. "Dylan, where did you get this?" I motion to the boat.

"I made it." My eyes widen. I didn't know he was even capable of building anything. Especially something like this. "What's with that look?" Oops. I look down to the water and see my rippling reflection.

"I just didn't think you could actual build something, you see?"

"Because I'm royal?" I nod. "Is that your image of us? That because we are royal, we cannot fend for ourselves?"

"Actually yes."

"I see." He looks away from me and turns to these mountains beside us. "Tell me, Max. Who has you? He's a lucky man."

"I'm sure you know him. He's the prince of my kingdom."

"Oh! You mean Fang!"

"Yes." I look at him to see his eyes are concentrated of one part of the boat. "You do know him."

"Yes. We used to best friends when we were younger."

"Really?" He smiled.

"No, don't let me say that. We knew each other when we were younger. Since our fathers were friends when they were younger, they tried to make us do the same. But, well, Fang didn't like me. At all. He actually told me he didn't like me to my face. At first, I thought that he was just being mean to me to cover up the fact that he actually wanted me to be his friend. I really thought that Fang was lonely and he just didn't know how to make friends." His smile got bigger. "So I just walked over the rude things he said and still tried to befriend him. Sadly, that didn't work at all. Then, one day, shortly after his sister was missing, our fathers left us to take care of business, I asked Fang if he wanted to play with any of the toys I had."

All of a sudden, Dylan started laughing. Ummm. He finally got himself under control after seeing my face. "I'm sorry. This is just really funny. You see, Fang wasn't the type to actually play with kid toys, so when I asked him, he looked at me like I was an idiot and told me "How could you play with those stupid things? They're boring." And I answered "Because I like them. Don't you?" I passed one to him and he just looked at it. After a while, I got up to show him how to use it and he said he hated me." He pushed a smile down.

"I don't think that's funny." I say.

"No. I know it's not, but you should've seen his face. He looked so serious. He was so serious. I was confused at first, but he said it again. We didn't talk anymore after that."

"Did he ever tell you why?" I can't believe I'm learning about Fang from this guy.

"I really think he said it because he was upset about his sister still. I don't think he still hates me, but, considering that face he made, he might. I never wanted to talk to him since then. How is he?" I look to our reflection again.

"He's fine."

"He must love you." I nod. "I see. Can't blame him." My face was shifted so much I couldn't see it. But somehow, Fang's face showed up next to what was left of mine. I miss you. "Max, if you had to choose, who would you pick between me and Fang?"

"Don't ask me stupid questions."

"I'm serious. Whom?" I look at Dylan and see the seriousness on his face.

"Who do you think? Fang, of course. "

"Why?"

"Because I love him. Why else?" He becomes silent. Just what was he thinking asking me that?

"Max, he's not the only man in the world. Don't close off your options." I sit there and look at Fang's reflection for a while. What could he mean by this? My options. The only person I choose is Fang. That's for sure, but this- the atmosphere had changed too much. It had become heavy. It was like it was crushing me underneath it. I had to get away from it, before I become flattened by it.

"Take me back. Now."

**Okay, that was a lot. Whooo! I hope you liked chapter and I will try to update soon.**


	18. I'm Not Giving Up

**Disclaimer: Maximum Ride is hereby, not mine. At all. It all belongs to James Patterson.**

Max POV:

Dylan gets us back to the shore without saying another word. And I was glad that he didn't say anything. This entire boat trip was actually fine, until he started quizzing me on who I wanted to be with. I mean, why would he ask me that? Because he doesn't want me "close off my options?" What does that mean? I know what I want. I want Fang and that's it. Why would he even say something like that?

He gets off first and extends his hand out to help me, apparently, but I only brush it off and get out on my own. Then I start walking back to the city. I wonder if the others noticed my absence. I'm sure they did. Great. I really don't want to hear Vincent right now. He's definitely going to be mad now.

"Max." I sigh. What does he want? "Max. Please listen to me." I stop. I heard him take a few steps to catch to me. And when he does, he was out of breath. Was I walking that fast? "Thanks. You were walking pretty fast. Just let me catch my breath."

I start walking again.

"Max!"

"I don't have time for your jokes right now. I have to get to the others. They're probably worried about me."

"Max!" Dylan caught up to me once we were back to the kingdom's large gates. He stopped in front of me with his face flushed. "Okay, no more jokes. Now I'm serious." I crossed my arms.

"Well, hurry up. I have to get back." He nodded and took a second to catch his breath again. "Hurry up."

"Max. Why are you so mad?" Did he really ask me that? Honestly?

"Is this your way of being serious?"

"Max, I want to know why you're mad at me. Please tell me." I shook my head, trying desperately to filter out what I was about to say, because if I hadn't there was going to be a lot profanities thrown into the wind.

"Well, let's just start with the fact that you basically insulted my love for Fang for telling me that I shouldn't "close off my options." What options? I love Fang and I'm very confident that he loves me back just as much, maybe even more."

"Okay. And?" I look at him with death written in my eyes. He quickly became quiet.

"And what the heck were you thinking asking me that question. Who would I pick between you and Fang was ridiculous. Of course I would choose Fang. Why would you even ask me something like that?" He looks at me for a while to confirm whether I was done or not. "Well? I want answer!" Me expecting an answer confused him for a second, but he quickly pushed the confusion away.

"Max, if you really want to know it's because I just didn't think that you had devoted yourself to Fang so early on in life. You are really young and you are sure that Fang is the one for you. Just how long did you know him?" I was silent. I had known Fang for as long as I could remember. The farthest I can go back was when I first came to the kingdom. I was a lot younger than, but I still remember Fang even back then. But that day I became a warrior was the first time I actually spoke to Fang directly. Other than that, we had never spoken. Of course I catch glances at him, but even then, we never really had contact with each other besides that.

"Max, were you invited to his home yet?" I nod.

"Yeah. Why?" He sighed and turned his gaze to the ocean.

"Because I'm sure you knew that there were other gladiators there before you." I nod again. "Some that supposedly went missing, right?" Ugh, this again. I thought this whole thing was behind me.

"Yes."

"They were potential brides for Fang, you know?" He looks at me to put emphasis on his words. "You did know that, right?"

"No." So that's what happened? Lissa was right about the gladiators going missing, but them getting dropped was not the reason.

"Fang has a thing for gladiators, but of course, the ones that came were of his father's choice. You see, their family actually has a thing the female gladiators. Something about them being strong and durable; being able to go through dire situations has them be appealing. I'm not sure if you knew, but the current queen there was a gladiator at one point." I unconsciously gasp. He smiled in return. "I guess not."

"So what happened to the gladiators before me?"

"My guess is that they left because Fang rejected them and they didn't want to show their faces to anyone else." He sighed loudly. "I can't blame him though. Some of those girls that his father chose for him were something drastic to look at. It's like he doesn't know Fang at all. I mean, If I know Fang he wants someone beautiful, strong,-"

"Why are you telling me this?" He looks at me with wide eyes. As if he didn't expect me to speak up.

"Because I figured since you were so dedicated to him, you should know. You are not the first gladiator Fang has ever had. And if he ends up leaving, maybe not the last." My arm comes forward with my fist ready, before I could stop it. My punch connected with Dylan's cheek. I literally felt it shape around my fist. Uh oh. I look at his face redden underneath his blonde hair. What have I done? I just PUNCHED the prince! Oh no. I want to say his name in remorse, but he looks at me, stopping me. His eyes were not angry like I thought they would be. Instead, they showed something else. Something strong, passionate even. I couldn't even tell what it was, but there was definitely something building behind them. The redness he had disappeared, and only focused where my fist was. But besides that, he just stood there looking at me. What am I supposed to do? I just hit this guy. Do I run? Then I would be a fugitive and they would probably chase and catch me. Gosh, I was just thinking about this very thing a while ago back in the water. I would hit Dylan and run. Now that I've actually done it, I'm paralyzed and don't know what to do. This is not good.

We just stood there, him staring intently at me. Then he spoke.

"I guess I made you pretty mad, huh?" He puts his hand to his cheek and winces. I do the same along with him. I am in so much trouble. "My own mother doesn't hit me like this. My father either."

"I'm sorry." I quickly said. He looks at me, confused.

"Why? I made you mad. This actually makes sense. I mean, my parents don't hit me like this, but you're not the only one who did." I look at him with the question of "Who?" written all over it. "Fang did."

"Huh?"

"We were kids then. He hit me over something and we started fighting." He suddenly smiled. "But when he did, I knew that I wanted him to be my best friend. Don't ask why, I just knew." Dylan came over and picked my chin up, forcing me look at him. "You two are definitely alike. Hmmm, maybe he did make a good choice. But I don't want to give up." He tilted his head to the side. This made his eyes hit the sun perfectly, making them turn a different shade, lighter, of blue. "Even though you love Fang, I still want you too, Max." I was focused on his words. He really does believe that Fang and I should be together. Perfect. But- he leaned in closely.

"Dylan." He put his arm around me and slowly closed his eyes. At the same time, he came closer. "Dylan, let go." I tried to push away, but he only pushed me closer. I was trapped. I'll admit that Dylan was a lot stronger than I thought. "Dylan." He opened his eyes ever so slightly and I felt my body weaken under his gaze. I just fell into his hold. "Dylan, let go."

"Shhh." His lips merely brushed against mine, before it hit me. Fang. What the hell am I doing?! I snap out of it and push Dylan away. He looks at me with wide eyes. That's when I put my hand on my lips. What did I just do? I look at him with red coating him.

"Dylan! What the hell!?"

"Max-"

"No!" I ran past him and went through the gates. What the hell happened back there? Was I actually going to let Dylan KISS me? What is wrong with me? Why would I-? No. I have to get out of here. Away from this kingdom, away from him. I finally saw the fountain from before come into view.

"Max!"

"Nico!" I saw him sitting on the side with one of the doves in his lap.

"Where were you?! We were looking for you! Where-" I ran over to him and stopped. "Where were you? And why are you so red?" I look back to see if he had followed him. I don't see a white cloak anywhere.

"I was running."

"But where'd you go?" I shake my head.

"I got distracted. That's all." He looks at him skeptically before smiling. The old Nico's back.

"Well, okay. Let's get back."

**That's it. I hope you enjoyed this chapter, and if you would please review. I will try to update soon.**


	19. I'm Going Home

**Disclaimer: Here is where I say I disclaim Maximum Ride. And well, I am. So, I disclaim Maximum Ride.**

Max POV:

"So, Max, where were you exactly?" I shake my head.

"I told you I just got distracted." I said a little too harshly. Ugh. That image of Dylan and what he almost did was still stuck in my mind. How could he even-? How could I even-? Ewwwww. I bet all that talk about them being friends was just a bunch of crap he made up just so he could get my guard down. Ugh! And I fell for it! How I could I just let that happen! OH MY GOSH! I will NEVER forgive myself for that. EVER. And Nico asking me about where I was really wasn't helping.

Nico and I were walking through the city streets by the familiar path the carriage that was originally escorting us around for the tour traveled. We were passing a large, amazing statue of a famous warrior way beyond our years. I never even heard of the man.

"Why do I feel like I you're not telling the truth, Max?" I look at him, before looking at one of the food carts we were passing.

"I'm not sure." That's when he stops and steps right in front of me.

"I think it's because you really aren't telling the truth." I just look at Nico's green eyes and try to figure out what was going on behind them. Something about them was intense, like he wasn't going to leave until I told him, but that thought quickly left. He just winked and smiled. "You were with the prince weren't you?" A strong blush came out of nowhere and cursed it. Dang it! How did he get that?!

"Wha-What?!" The way he smiled only made him even surer that he was right. I try to straighten my face out, but it was too late. I was caught.

"I'm right, aren't I? You were with the prince weren't you?" I just stood there. "Go ahead and admit it. I know I'm right."

"Then what's the point of me even saying anything if you already know?" His smile got bigger.

"Because I just want you to admit to your crime. You cheated on Fang?"

"No! Hell no! Are you crazy!?" I had to keep my fists on close watch, because I was sure that if I didn't one of them was going to end up upside Nico's head.

"Hmmm. Somebody's got a temper." Nico was on the verge of showing his teeth now, but he just backed away, and looked at me. "Is this guilt?"

"No, you dumbass! I'm getting mad because I would never do that to Fang. And the fact that you actually suggested that I would pissed me off."

"Yeah. I can see that." He reaches down to grab one of my shacking fists and hold it up for me to see. "You need to calm down." Like hell I will. Nico takes my hand and actually starts to massage it. My head unclenched one finger at a time until it was back to normal. Surprisingly, it was really soothing. But I was still mad, so I take my hand back.

"What was that for?"

"To calm you down. Should I do the other one?" He reaches for the other, but I quickly pull it back.

"No. I'm still mad."

"Alright then." He turns around and we start walking again. At first, there was nothing but an awkward silence. Well, for him it might have been awkward. For me, it was just a sizzling bit of anger that was finally about to stop. Either way, we said nothing. At least, until he broke it. "Hey Max?"

"What?" I said sharply.

"I'm pretty sure you're still mad, but I want to know. What did you do with the prince?" Oh great. Right when I started to cover up the thoughts of killing this idiot beside me, he finds another way to make me mad.

"Nico, you are not out of the punching zone, you know?"

"I know, but I want to know what happened?"

"Why?" I look up to see his face was….off. I mean, impassive. That face I saw before at the meeting earlier and the one on the carriage was back. "Nico?"

"Forget it." I look away. What was with that? How could he go from the cheerful, annoying Nico to this dark, quiet one. What happened in this split second that I missed? I mean, what happened? The silence that accompanied us earlier was back. The awkwardness was my side and whatever Nico was feeling was beyond me. Somewhere along the trip, the castle came into view. I figured it was time to break this.

"I punched him."

"Hmm?"

"I punched him. I punched the prince." At first, he didn't have a reaction. Sadly, that didn't last long. He snickered. "Huh?" That's when he started laughing. Hard. "Nico!" He grabbed his sides and nearly fell over. "Nico!"

"Oh my- Oh my gosh! Max, you-"

"That's not funny! Stop laughing!"

"Are you kidding! It's hilarious! What did he do? Tell me what he did!"

"Nothing. He didn't do anything." Nico looked me and tried to stop laughing. He managed to get it down to a snicker.

"Are you serious? He just let you hit him and didn't anything?" I put my hands on my hips.

"Well, what did you expect him to do? Hit me?"

"No. I just figured that he would've done something to get back at you. Where were you guys?" I put my hands down and looked at the castle.

"He took me on a boat ride. There we just talked about him. Him and Fang." I looked to Nico to see him making this ugly face. It was all scrunched up and squinty. "What's wrong with you?"

"I didn't think he would be so self-absorbed. I mean, I know he's a prince, but did he ask you about yourself at all?"

"Yeah! He did. But after the ride, he brought me back and he-" This was what I wasn't willing to tell. "after I punched him, he tried to kiss me." I look at Nico again to see his expression. It said nothing. Oh no. Not again with antisocial Nico. "Nico?" That's when his face changes to confusion.

"So he waited until AFTER you punched him to kiss you?" I nod. "Wow. He's weird. I think that punch turned him on." My mouth dropped. "What do you think? Do you think the prince is a masochist? I mean, maybe that's why he's so nice. He likes to get at people so they'll get mad and react." His eyes lit up with an idea. "I got it! The prince is a masochist! He likes to be punished! I got it!" He looks at me. "And Max! Your violent nature would fit his needs perfectly!"

"What?!"

"Don't you get it?" I push him back and start making my way up the hill. "Max! I have made a discovery!"

"Don't talk to me!" He catches up with me, out of breath.

"I don't care what you say, Max. I made a discovery. You can thank me later."

"Yeah right."

Nico and I came back to the castle just in time to see the others heading back inside.

"Was I gone that long?"

"We weren't going to leave without you, but, yeah, we were ready to go." When we got to the stone steps, I looked back at the carriages. They were the same beautiful, elegant ones form before. So this is what we're going to make our noble exit in. "You go on ahead. I'll catch up."

"Alright." I head inside while Nico leaves. I had told him about what Dylan and the kiss. And me punching him. Of course, me telling him about the punch made him laugh. But that comment he made about Dylan and his reaction to my punch, I could've gone on without hearing. Dylan and his sexual tendencies were none of my business and I wasn't going to make them mine either.

I see the others were scattered around the foyer, probably awaiting orders. I see Nina and the twins sitting on the stairs, talking. Journey was admiring some of the pictures that hung on the wall. But Vincent was nowhere to be seen. I walk over to Journey. The crystal blue eye that traced over the details of the picture turned to me with happiness dancing all around it.

"Max! Where were you!?" She jumps forward and pulls me into a tight hug. My guess is that her loud scream was loud enough to have Nina hear it because I heard her yell and start running over. The twins obviously heard her and saw me too. So, they started running over.

And that's how I almost died from suffocation.

"Max, where were you?!" Nina asked. I struggled to get my breathing right, but when I did, I told everyone about Dylan and the boat ride. I didn't tell them about the punch or the kiss. I just couldn't tell. Why did I even tell Nico?

"Oh, so we were worried sick because the decided to get it in with Max, huh?" One of the twins said. Both brothers nodded at the same time. I could feel my face start to burn.

"I wish he could've told us before he did that. Sheesh."

"No. It's not like that!" They both looked at me and smiled.

"Don't worry, Max. We would never believe that he would do that. Unless, he was looking for a quick way to get punched." They said simultaneaously. That was amazing.

"Well, if you're looking for Vincent he's talking to the king. We're going to be leaving soon, so he's going to finish up some things involving the treaty. We still have some time until then. If you want to look around some more before we leave, you can." Journey tells me before turning back to the picture.

"Alright." It's not like I was really going to do that though. I get to the top of the stairs and look over everyone. They kind of looked like ants. I smile at the thought before my mind wanders on something else. We're going back home. After, what, three days, I'll be back home. All of us. I wonder what everyone's lives were like before we left. Out of all of the faces I've seen, not one of them, I recognized from the barracks back home with the other gladiators. So, I'm guessing that I'm the only that was drafted from there recently. But I still wonder everyone did. Did they live with the other soldiers in their own buildings or were living in their homes before getting called again. Hmmm. When I get back, does this mean I even go back to the gladiator barracks or live with the soldiers? I guess that's my choice.

My mind wanders again. I wonder what Fang will do when I get back.

"Max?" I look to my side and see Vincent.

"Hey." He looks over me and shakes his head.

"Where the hell were you?" My eyes widen. "You do know I'm responsible for you, right? The soldiers that died are gone, but losing a soldier in a foreign kingdom is unacceptable. How would I explain that to the king if you hadn't showed up? I would've gotten blamed." I open my mouth to speak, but he just looks to the crowd and silences everyone. Well, there goes that explanation.

"Soldiers!" The room became silent. "We will be leaving immediately. The treaty has been approved by the king and there will not be any more threats of war. I hope you enjoyed your stay because when I finish. I want all of you to get to the carriages and get ready for the trip back." That speech was brief. Everything that could actually meant something was covered in it though. When the others start to file out, Vincent start heading down the stairs.

"Vincent, I have a reason for why I was gone."

"It doesn't matter, Max. As long as you're back and safe, that's all that matters." I look at him in confusion. "What?"

"It's just that everyone was so concerned. I didn't think you or anyone here cared for me that much."

"We are comrades, Max. Why wouldn't we worry? And besides, all of us have become friends. Nina, the twins, Nico, Journey, and I." Wow. I didn't think that I would actually make friends here. And here I am, making them out of nowhere. When did this happen?

"I didn't know that."

"I know you didn't." I throw a dagger glance at him. "Just like you didn't think that the prince was going to try to take you away from Fang." I stopped.

"What?" Vincent was already heading out the door. What did he mean? He knew Dylan was going to try that? I get outside and see the twins waving me over to one of the carriages. Our little group was there. Even Nico showed up. He was joking around with the twins now. At least, he wasn't being moody.

"We're going home." I look to Nina and smile. "I am ready to get back."

"Yeah." We really are going back. We really are. Finally. I lean back in the seat and close my eyes. I'm ready to get as far away from this kingdom as possible. No, it's not the kingdom anymore. Just Dylan. Just him. Now, I can finally get that to happen.

**Okay, that's all. Enjoy this chapter? Then please review. A lot of stuff is going on, but I will update as soon as I can. **


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